Paul Kagame. (X)
Rwanda President Paul Kagame issued a stark warning to South Africa late on Wednesday night, accusing President Cyril Ramaphosa and his government of distorting facts about the ongoing conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and suggesting that Rwanda is prepared for confrontation if necessary.
“What has been said about [the conversations I had with Ramaphosa this week] in the media by South African officials and President Ramaphosa himself contains a lot of distortion, deliberate attacks, and even lies.
“If words can change so much from a conversation to a public statement, it says a lot about how these very important issues are being managed,” Kagame said in a post on his X account, in reply to Ramaphosa’s posted statement.
Ramaphosa’s statement followed the death of 13 South African soldiers deployed as part of the Southern African Development Community Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (SAMIDRC).
The death of the South African soldiers has intensified political and military scrutiny in Pretoria, forcing the government to justify its intervention in the decades-long conflict while navigating increasingly strained ties with Rwanda.
South African officials have blamed the escalating violence on the M23 rebel group and the Rwandan Defence Force.
International relations minister Ronald Lamola has said that South Africa is engaging with the African Union Peace and Security Council and the United Nations Security Council to push for “an immediate ceasefire”.
In his post, Kagame dismissed South Africa’s involvement in the peacekeeping, saying that SAMIDRC was not a peacekeeping mission but a “belligerent force” supporting the Congolese government.
He accused SAMIDRC of working alongside the Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda (FDLR), a militia with historical ties to perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
FDLR targeted Rwanda, Kagame said, “while also threatening to take the war to Rwanda itself”.
He accused SAMIDRC of replacing the East African Community Regional Force, which he characterised as the only legitimate peacekeeping operation in the region.
“President Ramaphosa has never given a ‘warning’ of any kind, unless it was delivered in his local language which I do not understand,” Kagame said in his statement, addressing the notion that he had been cautioned by his South African counterpart.
He claimed instead that Ramaphosa had requested logistical assistance to ensure that South African troops had electricity, food, and water, which Rwanda would help facilitate.
Kagame said Ramaphosa had personally acknowledged that M23 was not responsible for the deaths of South African soldiers, but rather the Armed Forces of the DRC (FARDC).
“If South Africa wants to contribute to peaceful solutions, that is well and good, but South Africa is in no position to take on the role of a peacemaker or mediator. And if South Africa prefers confrontation, Rwanda will deal with the matter in that context any day.”
Earlier, Ramaphosa had said that the fighting was the result of “an escalation by the rebel group M23 and Rwanda Defence Force militia engaging the Armed Forces of the DRC and attacking peacekeepers from the SADC Mission”.
He described the security situation as “tense, volatile, and unpredictable”.
He said that full support was being provided to those injured in the fighting, as well as to the families of the slain South African soldiers.
Ramaphosa said that South Africa’s military presence in the DRC was part of a regional and international peacekeeping effort.
“South Africa’s military presence in the eastern DRC is not a declaration of war against any country or state,” he said. The SAMIDRC was there to protect civilians and uphold stability in the war-torn region.
He called on all parties to honour peace agreements, including the Luanda Process, and to respect the DRC’s territorial integrity. He also welcomed the recent United Nations Security Council resolution urging an end to hostilities and the withdrawal of foreign forces from Congolese territory.