Rwanda can’t belong in a club hijacked by reactionary Tshisekedi

Rwanda was due to assume the rotating chairmanship of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), a position it is fully entitled to as one of the bloc’s 11 member states. But that right was deliberately brushed aside once again thanks to the backroom lobbying of Congolese ruler Tshisekedi.

The argument was: If Rwanda were allowed to chair ECCAS, DRC would pull out of the organization. It was nothing more than a tantrum dressed up as diplomacy, and ECCAS shamefully caved to the pressure.

Even worse, the institution has become a mouthpiece for Tshisekedi’s tired anti-Rwanda accusations and propaganda, parroting their usual half-baked lies that “Rwanda is aggressor in the eastern DRC conflict.”

ECCAS went as far as issuing a misguided demand for Rwanda to withdraw its troops from Congolese territory, choosing political expediency over facts.

This is manipulation. Tshisekedi has reduced ECCAS to a tool of his domestic propaganda, much like he has done with international media through well-funded smear campaigns aimed at demonizing Rwanda.

There is no reason for Rwanda to entertain an organization that strays from its founding principles to protect a regime that scapegoats neighbors for its own failings. ECCAS has proven it is willing to bend its rules and abandon impartiality in favor of political pressure from a government lacking credibility.

This isn’t the first time Rwanda has distanced itself from ECCAS. In 2007, it left the bloc over concerns about its ineffectiveness, only rejoining in 2016 with the hope that the organization had found direction. Clearly, that hope was misplaced.

The fact that ECCAS can be swayed so easily by the whims of one incompetent leader is proof enough that it lacks the backbone to stand for anything meaningful. Rwanda will not be part of any institution that rewards mediocrity and corruption.

If African institutions like ECCAS continue on this path, discarding principles and objectivity for petty politics, then the continent is being led toward a dangerous cliff.