Angola’s mediation “is the last chance”, says Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi

In an interview with Radio France, Le Monde and the Wall Street Journal, the Congolese president claims to be taking the “path to peace” while everyone fears a war with Rwanda. Félix Tshisekedi, however, assures that this is a “last chance”, because “Kagame’s provocations are numerous”.

“It’s the last chance route”, announces in an interview granted to Claude Guibal and Eric Audra, of Radio France, Le Monde and the Wall Street Journal, the Congolese President, Félix Tshisekedi, on the subject of the relaunch of mediation between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, while the M23 rebels, supported by Kigali, are still advancing in North Kivu. He rocks “to have hope that this will lead to something”while accusing Rwandan President Paul Kagame of “handling” and to have “bad intentions”.

Since the insurgents took up arms again in 2021, never have the fighting been so close to Goma, the capital of North Kivu, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people have found refuge. During the presidential campaign, before his re-election in December 2023, Félix Tshisekedi declared that “the slightest skirmish” he would declare war on Rwanda which supports the rebels. From, “There was intense diplomatic activity, not to say pressure on the DRC, so that we would not take the path of war as a priority.” The African Union has notably designated Angolan President Joao Lourenço to mediate between the two countries.

Numerous “provocations”

“There is a path to peace that has been traced”explains Félix Tshisekedi, “I am taking it, not out of weakness, but with the hope that it will lead to something. And for me, it is the path of the last chance, because Kagame’s provocations are numerous. His manipulation and his bad intentions today are beyond any shadow of doubt.”

In eastern Congo, the M23 rebellion surrounds Goma, the capital of North Kivu and its two million inhabitants. A conflict born 30 years ago, in the wake of the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda, against a backdrop of ethnic rivalries and the plunder of mining resources, in this region with a subsoil rich in rare and strategic minerals such as coltan, essential to the composition of smartphones.

“This aggression is being carried out for economic reasons, to plunder the resources of the Democratic Republic of Congo. And it is being done at the cost of ethnic cleansing which does not speak its name.”

Félix Tshisekedi, president of the DRC

at franceinfo

“Because of the massacres and violence carried out by Rwanda, entire populations are displaced and live in subhuman conditions,” denounces the president. “And these populations are being forcibly moved because the localities they live in, their localities of origin, contain materials useful to industrialized countries,” he assures.

In the eyes of the Congolese president, the international condemnations of Rwanda’s action are not sufficient, and for good reason: “I’m going to be very harsh, it’s complicity. Kagame said it himself. He said that he was not alone in the misfortunes of the Congo, in the pillaging of the Congo. He himself was responsible for stealing resources and others buying and transforming them.”

Condemnation is not sanction, and this is proof of a certain laissez-faire attitude according to Félix Tshisekedi: “When Navalny died, there were 500 United States sanctions against Russia. 500 for an individual! In the Congo, there were 10 million deaths. It’s not me who says that, it’s humanitarian organizations. How many sanctions against Rwanda? Zero. If that’s not double standards, tell me what is.”