This Thursday, Rwanda’s Ambassador to the United States, Mathilde Mukantabana, submitted a statement to the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa following President Donald Trump’s historic peace agreement between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
One sentence in that statement sent shockwaves through Kinshasa’s propaganda circles. In explaining Rwanda’s defensive posture, the ambassador noted that “Rwanda does engage in security coordination with the AFC/M23.”
That single line was enough to trigger a Congolese hullabaloo. Tshisekedi’s propagandists fell over themselves, shouting that Rwanda had “finally admitted” to supporting M23.
This has exposed their own refusal to think clearly.
The reaction was driven by a familiar objective to demonize M23 and to incriminate Rwanda at all costs. Logic was never part of the plan. Regarding M23, the goal has always been to erase the movement’s grievances and to portray it as illegitimate, regardless of facts on the ground.
To any sane observer, Rwanda’s coordination with M23 is understandable. M23 controls Goma and Bukavu, two major cities that sit directly on Rwanda’s border. Stability in those cities is inseparable from Rwanda’s own security.
There is also a deeper and far more serious reality. Rwanda and M23 share a common enemy: the FDLR. These are remnants of the forces responsible for the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, who regrouped in eastern Congo and have since made violence their currency. The FDLR has persecuted Congolese Tutsi communities for decades, killing, raping, and displacing civilians solely because of who they are.
In 2019, FDLR fighters crossed into Rwanda and attacked Musanze District, killing eight civilians and injuring eighteen others. The group has repeatedly collaborated with FARDC, further entrenching insecurity in the region.
M23 emerged in response to this cycle of persecution and state failure. The Congolese Tutsi communities it protects have long been abandoned by Kinshasa and targeted by armed groups operating with impunity. To frame M23 as the source of violence, while ignoring the forces that have terrorized civilians for years, is an act of deliberate deception.
Yet this is exactly what the Tshisekedi regime continues to do. M23 is relentlessly vilified, its grievances dismissed, its existence treated as a crime. Meanwhile, the FDLR is minimized, excused, and quietly armed and financed. This imbalance serves a political narrative that thrives on scapegoats and silence.
What truly unsettles the Tshisekedi regime is not Rwanda’s coordination with M23, but Rwanda’s refusal to accept a campaign that endangers its people and its survival. Security cooperation aimed at stopping genocidal violence is not something to apologize for. It is something to understand.
Rwanda must not yield to propaganda that masks deadly realities. The stakes are too high, and the history too painful, to pretend that ignoring the FDLR or criminalizing those who resist it will ever bring peace.
ellenkampire