The anti Rwanda crowd is at it again. Mostly Congolese voices on social media, loudly congratulating themselves for what they think is a major “gotcha” moment.
According to them, Rwanda has finally and openly admitted that it works with M23. Case closed. Celebration mode on.
The excitement came from a statement by Rwanda’s ambassador to the United States, Mathilde Mukanatabana. She said Rwanda engages in security coordination with AFC M23 to build trust through transparency. A simple sentence. Clear. Calm. Ordinary.
Yet somehow, it was received in Kinshasa like a leaked nuclear code in a cold war.
What the ambassador said was neither new nor shocking. Rwanda has always been consistent on this matter. She even went further to clarify that AFC M23 is an independent Congolese group with legitimate grievances against Kinshasa. Killings. Rape. Systematic discrimination against Congolese Tutsi. Repeated violations of peace agreements over more than two decades. Political exclusion. None of this is controversial. It is documented history.
And just in case anyone was struggling to understand, she added that Rwanda does not seek to determine political outcomes in the DRC and does not endorse armed movements as a substitute for inclusive governance. That should have settled it. Well, It did not.
Instead, the usual crowd in Kinshasa went airborne. Rwanda is under pressure. The leadership is in its final days. Sanctions from Washington are coming. Some so called international journalists even started speculating about what this means for ongoing peace processes. Imagine such delusion, recycled and served with confidence.
The truth is simpler. The narrative coming out of Kinshasa is sick with desperation. It is built on the hope that shouting loud enough might shift moods in Western corridors. It will not. Fantasy does not become policy just because it is repeated.
But let us assume, for argument’s sake, that Rwanda fully collaborates with M23. What exactly is the fuss? The Head of State of Rwanda once asked a blunt question, who would not support M23. He was pointing to the cause, not the gun. Yet in Kinshasa, this is treated as a capital offense deserving public stoning.
What is conveniently ignored is this. Since the liberation of Goma and Bukavu, Rwanda’s security has never been this stable. The areas are controlled by forces that share the same grievances and have long been victims of the same bad governance and chronic insecurity. Insecurity largely fueled by genocidal groups like FDLR and violent militias such as Wazalendo, both openly hostile to Rwanda.
Even more uncomfortable is the fact that FARDC, the national army of the DRC, collaborates with FDLR and has embedded its leaders within command structures. These are the same actors with the same agenda, attacking Rwanda and dreaming of toppling its legitimate leadership.
Why this does not alarm international circles, the very ones that blacklisted FDLR as a genocidal terrorist organization, is the real million dollar question. If interests explain the silence, then Rwanda has interests too.
The elephant in the room remains FDLR. Deal with it first. The rest will follow.
ellenkampire