Rwanda and DR Congo’s foreign ministers are set to meet in Luanda, Angola, on Tuesday, July 30, to discuss the ongoing diplomatic tensions between the two nations. By Tuesday morning, a Rwandan delegation, led by Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Olivier Nduhungirehe, had arrived in the Angolan capital.
This meeting follows a recent agreement between the two countries’ foreign ministers, made during an East African Community (EAC) meeting in Zanzibar, Tanzania, to address security issues causing diplomatic strains. This will be the second meeting in Luanda regarding the conflict in eastern DR Congo, with the first having taken place in March.
Angola’s President Joao Lourenço is serving as the mediator between Rwanda and DR Congo through the African Union-supported Luanda Process, which began in mid-2022 to repair diplomatic relations strained by the conflict in North Kivu province. This conflict involves a government-led coalition fighting the M23 rebels, a Congolese group advocating for persecuted communities in DR Congo.
DR Congo accuses Rwanda of backing these rebels, an accusation that Rwanda rejects. Conversely, Rwanda alleges that the Congolese armed forces (FARDC) have incorporated the FDLR, a UN-sanctioned militia linked to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
The FDLR, formed in DR Congo in the mid-2000s by perpetrators of the 1994 genocide, is part of the FARDC coalition in North Kivu, which also includes Burundian forces, troops from the Southern African Development Community (SADC), local Wazalendo groups, and European mercenaries.
For years, Rwanda has urged the Congolese government to disarm the FDLR, a genocidal militia, and address the underlying issues fueling the conflict in its eastern provinces.
The violence in eastern DR Congo stems from long-standing persecution and marginalization of Kinyarwanda-speaking communities. This prolonged conflict has led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, with Rwanda hosting over 100,000 refugees. Many of these refugees, primarily from DR Congo, have lived in Rwandan camps for nearly 30 years. As of August last year, Rwanda had taken in more than 11,500 refugees from eastern DR Congo since 2022, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
The first group of Congolese refugees arrived in Rubavu District, Western Province, in November 2022, as the conflict between the Congolese armed forces and the M23 rebels approached the Rwandan border.
