Kagame and Ramaphosa in furious row over DRC invasion

Rwandan President Paul Kagame has launched a furious broadside against South African President Cyril Ramaphosa as diplomatic tensions spill over in the wake of the killing of 13 South African soldiers in a Rwandan-backed invasion of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

On Sunday, Rwandan troops and Rwandan-backed rebels in the M23 militia (pictured) entered Goma, the largest city in the eastern DRC’s North Kivu Province. UN officials said as many as 4,000 Rwandan troops were escorting the M23 rebels, and UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said that: “There was no question that there are Rwandan troops in Goma supporting the M23”.

Hundreds have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced in the fighting. Having tightened its grip on Goma, there are fears M23 will push on to Bukavu, a city of over one million at the southern end of Lake Kivu.

In a belligerent post on X, posted as a direct response to an earlier statement from South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa in which he appeared to blame Rwanda for the deaths of 13 South African troops, Kagame accused Ramaphosa of lying about the conflict and said that Rwanda would “deal with” any South African attempts at “confrontation.”

“If South Africa wants to contribute to peaceful solutions, that is well and good, but South Africa is in no position to take on the role of a peacemaker or mediator. And if South Africa prefers confrontation, Rwanda will deal with the matter in that context any day.”

Ramaphosa accuses Rwanda

In his statement, Ramaphosa confirmed that 13 South African troops had died fighting in what he said was “an escalation by the rebel group M23 and Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) militia engaging the Armed Forces of the DRC (FARDC) and attacking peacekeepers from the SADC Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (SAMIDRC).”

He welcomed calls at the UN Security Council for “an immediate end to hostilities, the reversal of territorial expansion by the M23, the exit of external forces from the DRC and the resumption of peace talks under the Nairobi Process” and called for respect for the territorial integrity of the DRC.  

In a furious response, Kagame accused Ramaphosa and other South African officials of “a lot of distortion, deliberate attacks, and even lies” following two conversations with his opposite number.   

“The Rwanda Defence Force is an army, not a militia…SAMIDRC is not a peacekeeping force, and it has no place in this situation. It was authorized by SADC as a belligerent force engaging in offensive combat operations to help the DRC Government fight against its own people, working alongside genocidal armed groups like FDLR which target Rwanda, while also threatening to take the war to Rwanda itself.”

He claimed that SAMIDRC “diplaced” the East African Community Regional Force, “and this contributed to the failure of the negotiation processes.”

Pressure mounting on Rwanda

There are signs that international pressure is mounting on Rwanda to halt its activities in the eastern DRC.

On Sunday, UN secretary-general António Guterres called on the Rwanda Defence Forces to “cease support to the M23 and withdraw from DRC territory,” according to a statement from his spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

UK foreign secretary David Lammy said that Rwanda has put $1bn of global aid under threat by its role in the invasion, while France is reportedly seeking western support for a UN Security Council resolution that names Rwanda as being behind the attacks.