Macron issues warnings, including in Rwanda

The DRC “must not be the spoils of war, the open looting (of the country) must stop. Neither looting, nor balkanization, nor war!” hammered the French president during a press conference with his Congolese counterpart Felix Tshisekedi. The latter had just deplored the “unjust and barbaric aggression” of which his country considers itself to be a victim.
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The DRC accuses Rwanda of supporting the M23 rebellion, which since last year has seized large swathes of territory in the province of North Kivu, a region rich in minerals. UN experts have corroborated this support and several Western chancelleries have denounced it, although Kigali denies it.

Rwanda called to responsibility

The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also condemned this support, but Kinshasa believes that it is not enough, expecting concrete measures from Paris against Kigali.

Emmanuel Macron did not announce any sanctions, but he called on everyone to “take responsibility, including Rwanda”. “What we expect from Rwanda and the others (actors) is to commit and respect the appointments that they give themselves under the supervision of the mediators and if they do not respect, then yes, it there may be sanctions, I say it very clearly”, he also underlined.

The French president had attempted a good offices mission on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York last September, playing the facilitators for a meeting between Felix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

But the rebellion has since resumed its progress, while Emmanuel Macron finds himself accused of bias in favor of Paul Kagame, with whom he made a reconciliation after the dark years following the genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994 and accusations of involvement in this bloodbath brought against France.

Humanitarian airlift to Goma

Emmanuel Macron also mentioned the establishment, with the support of France, of a humanitarian air bridge to Goma, the capital of North Kivu, announced the same morning by the European Union, to help the populations of east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, plagued by armed groups.

The DRC is the 4th and last leg of Emmanuel Macron’s tour of Central Africa, which also took him to Gabon for a summit on the forest, to Angola and to Congo-Brazzavile.

During his visit to Kinshasa, which continues until Saturday evening, he will meet artists and entrepreneurs and see in the early afternoon Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe, at the origin of the discovery of the Ebola virus.

The same message marked each stage of his tour: France, a former colonial power increasingly contested on the continent, wants to develop a new relationship with Africa, made of “humility” and “responsible and balanced” partnerships. .

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