Rwanda withdrew its last troops from neighbouring Congo on Saturday after about 1 100 soldiers marched in single file out of the war-ravaged country, the Rwandan army chief said.
Thousands of civilians lined the roads and a helicopter gunship flew overhead as the troops, who were deployed in the border town of Goma and surrounding areas, walked the few kilometres from Goma’s sports stadium to Gisenyi in Rwanda.
”Since they were deployed in an area close to the border, these are the last troops to withdraw after they ensured the security of colleagues who pulled out earlier from areas further afield,” Major General James Kabarebe told The Associated Press.
”Behind this there is no other soldier from Rwanda in Congo,” he added as the last soldier crossed the border.
The withdrawal — expected to cost $17-million — was agreed under a July 30 peace deal to end the four year war in Congo signed by Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Congolese President Joseph Kabila in South Africa.
The war broke out in August 1998 when Rwanda and Uganda sent thousands of troops and military hardware to back Congolese rebels seeking to oust Kabila’s late father, then-President Laurent Kabila.
They accused him of supporting rebels threatening regional security. Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia sent troops to back the government.
Rwanda’s withdrawal began September 17, and by Friday 20 514 troops had pulled out of Congo, said Joseph Mutaboba, a senior Rwandan foreign ministry official.
The figure does not include Congo-based soldiers who were in Rwanda for holidays or on sick leave when the order for withdrawal was issued, defence officials said.
Rwanda agreed to the withdrawal in exchange for Kabila’s pledge to disarm, demobilise and repatriate former Rwandan soldiers and Hutu militiamen who fled to Congo after carrying out the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
Brig. Gen. Roberto Martinelli, deputy commander of UN forces in Congo, said Rwanda had now fulfilled its commitments in the peace accord.
”It’s now up to the government in Kinshasa (Congo’s capital) to do the same and they (the government) are creating the necessary political and military conditions to pursue, disarm and repatriate the Interahamwe (Hutu militia) in Congo,” Martinelli said.
More than 500 000 minority Tutsis and political moderates from the Hutu majority were killed during the genocide.
The Rwandan rebels fought alongside the Congolese government in the conflict in Congo, and used eastern Congo to launch attacks in Rwanda.
Kabarebe said the disarmament of the Rwandan rebels was key to ensuring there is peace in Congo and the region.
”Disarmament should not fail. It’s not in the interest of anyone for it to fail,” he said.
Rwanda had the largest number of soldiers in Congo of the foreign nations involved in the war, with an estimated 23,400 troops deployed there.
Namibia has said it has withdrawn its troops from Congo, and Angola is believed to have only a small number still inside the mineral-rich nation.
On Friday, nearly 2 000 Zimbabwean soldiers began pulling out of Lubumbashi, a diamond dealing city in the southeast of Congo.
Zimbabwe, which had an estimated 12 000 troops in Africa’s third largest nation, is expected to formally announce it has withdrawn all of its troops from Congo during a ceremony October 11 in Kinshasa, the country’s capital.
Uganda has withdrawn all but 1 000 of its troops from Congo. Those remaining are in the troubled northeastern city of Bunia at the request of the UN observer mission to Congo.
The city has been wracked in recent weeks by fighting among various ethnic groups over control of economic resources. – Sapa-AP