Rwanda’s defensive measures put in place to counter security threats from neighbouring DR Congo will remain in place until agreements to neutralise the FDLR militia materialise, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has said.

Amb. Olivier Nduhungirehe said that Rwanda continues to face threats and hate speech from Congolese officials, despite an agreement signed on Monday, November 25 in Angola on the concept of operation (CONOPS), which would guide the dismantling of the FDLR and Rwanda’s lifting of the defensive measures on the border with DR Congo.

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Rwanda has repeatedly voiced its security concerns owing to the active presence of FDLR, a militia founded by remnants of the perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, in the Congo. The militia has also been integrated into the Congolese army in part to bolster the latter in the ongoing armed conflict against the M23 rebels.

"In any case, to implement these CONOPS and the agreement we signed, we just need goodwill,” Nduhungirehe said in an interview with the national broadcaster RBA.

"We have said on different occasions that we have defensive measures at the border [with DR Congo] to face that security threat. And those measures are dynamic and proportionate to the threat that we are facing,” he said.

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The minister said "bellicose” statements by Congolese government officials continue to undermine efforts to restore diplomatic relations between the two countries, which were tainted by accusations that Rwanda supports the M23 rebels in North Kivu province.

The Rwandan government dismisses the allegations, saying the conflict is a result of DR Congo’s governance failure.

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Amb. Nduhungirehe said remarks made by Congolese Minister of Justice Constant Mutamba on November 24, threatening to "kill Banyarwanda” and Rwandan leaders did not help the efforts to normalise relations or end the persecution of Congolese Tutsi community.

Mutamba, who was speaking to inmates at Munzenze prison in Goma, a city on the border with Rwanda, urged the prisoners report anyone with links to "traitors.”

"Anyone in contact with Banyarwanda will be caught and killed,” Mutamba said, promising to release inmates who would report those identified as traitors.

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"When we hear Constant Mutamba saying what he said, this is actually the reason why we put in place those defensive measures. Those defensive measures will stay in place until the CONOPS and our agreement are implemented – meaning the neutralisation of the security threat (to Rwanda), which is the FDLR,” Nduhungirehe said.

To end the security crisis in eastern DR Congo, where more than 200 armed groups roam, Nduhungirehe said the Congolese government "needs to own its conflict and to find a solution to that conflict.’

"There are problems on the ground, like the problem of the Congolese Tutsi in eastern Congo. We are talking about the M23 movement – it’s even the second M23; we had the first M23 [in 2012], before the M23, there was the CNDP and, before that, there was another movement, the RCD.

"So, there is a problem that needs to be addressed by tackling the root causes of this crisis. These are the paternalisation, persecution, hate speech,” the minister said.

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Nduhungirehe said that although the draft agreement signed in the Angolan capital Luanda on November 25 addressed the issue of the FDLR and Rwanda’s defensive measures, the problem of the M23 rebellion remained unaddressed.

"There are three security issues between DRC and Rwanda. There is the FDLR, the defensive measures and the M23,” he said.

"The first two issues were somehow addressed in the CONOPS, but there’s that remaining issue [of M23] that should be addressed as well. We have made a proposal and we believe that before we sign any agreement with [DR Congo], this issue needs to be addressed.

"For Rwanda, we have been clear that there’s need for commitment by DRC to engage in direct talks with M23, with a view to finding a lasting solution to this crisis,” Nduhungirehe noted.

The M23 resurfaced in late 2021, nearly a decade in hibernation after its defeat in 2023. The armed group says it fights to protect the civilian population threatened by other armed groups such as the FDLR and its allied militias as well as for the Congolese government to implement previous agreements, which sought to integrate the rebels into the army.