President Paul Kagame held talks with the Chairperson of the East African Community (EAC), President Salva Kiir of South Sudan, and his delegation, as well as the regional bloc’s Secretary General Peter Mathuki, at Village Urugwiro, on Thursday, February 22.

That was soon after the EAC Chairperson arrived in Rwanda for a working visit accompanied by Mathuki.

"They discussed the importance of addressing the root causes of insecurity in the region, as well as the need to uphold integrity and accountability in the functioning of the East African Community,” Urugwiro Village posted on X.

Kiir’s visit to Kigali came amidst heightened concern about the continuous tension in eastern DR Congo where M23 rebels are battling a Congolese government coalition. African Union Commission (AUC) Chairperson Amb Moussa Faki Mahamat earlier expressed his concern and, among others, reiterated his call for rapid de-escalation.

The Congolese government coalition comprises, among others, SADC troops, Burundian soldiers, the FDLR militia, European mercenaries, and a host of Congolese militia groups.

At the heart of the insecurity affecting eastern DR Congo and the region is the FDLR, a militia group based in eastern DR Congo for nearly three decades. It was founded there in mid-2000 by perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, and is a major reason why genocide ideology in the region has not dissolved. Rwanda-DR Congo relations have gone through turbulent periods, over the past years, primarily as a result of the presence in eastern DR Congo, of the genocidal militia whose intention remains to overthrow the government of Rwanda.

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The unending stigmatization of Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese citizens has worsened the situation as the latter are deliberately labelled as Rwandans by Congolese politicians, creating a worrying situation whereby thousands of Congolese refugees in Rwanda are denied the right to return home. Rwanda hosts more than 100,000 Congolese refugees, including more than 13,000 who arrived in the past two years.

Since early February, the M23 rebels have advanced towards Goma, the capital of DR Congo’s North Kivu Province, raising fears that they might take control of the city of an estimated two million people. Kigali has also urged the United Nations Security Council not to amplify allegations recurrently made by the Congolese government that Rwanda supports the M23 rebels. The Congolese government continues to accuse Rwanda of supporting the M23 rebels – allegations Kigali dismisses. Rwanda has stressed that the conflict in eastern DR Congo is a result of internal problems including bad governance, ethnic discrimination, and violence, in DR Congo.

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In a February 21 statement, the AUC Chairperson called upon regional leaders, particularly those of DR Congo and Rwanda, to prioritize dialogue in the framework of the two African mechanisms led by President João Lourenço of Angola and Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, with the goal of agreeing, in a collaborative and fraternal spirit, on a reasonable pathway to settle political differences, whatever their nature.

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The statement read: "The integrity, security, sovereignty, and stability of all states in the region must necessarily be assured, and the lives of the civilian population completely protected. The Chairperson of the Commission repeats forcefully that there will not be any military solution to problems and disagreements within the African family.”

The government of Rwanda has also noted that it was concerned about the eastern DR Congo conflict having spillover effects in the Great Lakes Region, at a time when the Congolese government had abandoned regional peace processes. The Chairperson of the African Union Commission also called upon "all foreign powers to completely abstain from all interference in the internal affairs of all African countries,” notably those of the Great Lakes Region.

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The M23 rebels’ latest advances came after the Congolese government’s expulsion of the East African Community Regional Force, in December 2023.

The EAC regional force which comprised troops from South Sudan, Uganda, Burundi, and Kenya, had been mandated to oversee a ceasefire and the rebel’s withdrawal from earlier captured territories. The regional force began withdrawing from its positions in eastern DR Congo over one year after it was deployed to support regional peace efforts, and especially to observe a ceasefire between the Congolese army and the M23 rebels in North Kivu province.

Earlier, on February 16, President Kagame attended a mini-summit hosted by President João Lourenço of Angola at the African Union Headquarters, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to address the root causes of the ongoing insecurity in eastern DR Congo, including bad governance, ethnic discrimination and violence. Other regional leaders in attendance included President William Ruto of Kenya, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi, and South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa.