Paul Kagame: “President Ramaphosa never addressed me the slightest warning”

Diplomatic tensions between South Africa and Rwanda have reached a new threshold this week. Rwandan President Paul Kagame warned that his country was ready for confrontation with Pretoria about the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

In a message published Wednesday evening on his account X, Kagame accused his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa, and his government of distorting the reality of the conflict in eastern DRC. He said he had two exchanges this week with Ramaphosa on the situation in the region, including a earlier on Wednesday.

“What has been reported by the South African media and President Ramaphosa himself on these discussions is filled with inaccuracies, voluntary attacks and even lies”denounced Kagame in reaction to a Pretoria declaration. Indeed, the South African government attributes the escalation of violence in eastern DRC to the M23 rebels and the Rwandan defense forces.

According to Ramaphosa, these clashes result from the increase in M23 attacks and Rwandan forces against the DRC armed forces and the peacekeepers of the SADC mission. This declaration comes after the death of 13 South African soldiers engaged in the mission of the development community of southern Africa in the DRC (Samidrc). Kagame rejected these accusations, claiming that Samidc was not a peacekeeping mission, but a “Belligerent force” supporting the Congolese government.

“If South Africa really wants to contribute to a peaceful solution, so much the better. But it has neither legitimacy nor neutrality to play the mediators. If it chooses the confrontation, Rwanda will reply accordingly ”warned the Rwandan president. Kagame also accused Samidrc of collaborating with the Liberation Democratic Forces of Rwanda (FDLR), an armed group linked to leaders of the Rwandan genocide in 1994, assuring that this militia represents a threat to Rwanda and could extend the conflict to its territory .

In response to rumors according to which he received a warning from Ramaphosa, Kagame quipped: “President Ramaphosa never addressed me the least ‘Warning’, unless he did in his local language that I do not understand. »» He added that his South African counterpart had actually asked him for logistical support to guarantee the access of South African soldiers to electricity, food and water, aid that Rwanda says he is ready to provide.

Finally, Kagame assured that Ramaphosa had personally recognized that the M23 was not responsible for the death of the South African soldiers, attributing these losses to the armed forces of the DRC.