U.S. Senator Jim Risch, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has once again shown how the sanctions imposed on senior Rwandan officers are unilateral and biased.
In his own statement, Senator Risch admitted that the Tshisekedi regime, through the FARDC and its coalition, has been “pursuing a military solution in eastern DRC and must abandon it.” He also urged the regime to respect the ceasefire.
That admission alone says a lot. It confirms that Washington knows exactly how the Tshisekedi regime has been operating in eastern Congo. While peace frameworks demanded a ceasefire, Kinshasa chose belligerence. It kept violating the ceasefire while pretending to engage in peace efforts.
Yet despite recognizing this behavior, the United States continues to pamper the Tshisekedi regime. Instead of sanctions, it offers little more than warnings, as if speaking to a spoiled brat that keeps repeating the same reckless conduct.
Meanwhile, the reality on the ground is grim. The Tshisekedi coalition has recently carried out bombardments in areas such as Mweso, Rubaya, Walikale, Masisi, Kalehe and Minembwe. These attacks have only worsened the humanitarian crisis, causing new waves of displacement, deaths, and rapes among civilians.
Worth reminding that those bombardments are part of a coordinated military approach that the Tshisekedi regime conducts together with the blacklisted genocidal FDLR rebel.
What makes the situation even more troubling is that Washington clearly knows this. The United States has long been aware of the role played by the Tshisekedi regime and its allies in fueling instability in eastern Congo. Yet instead of holding all actors equally accountable, Rwanda has been turned into the convenient scapegoat.
If this selective approach continues, the conflict risks worsening even further. A regime that keeps choosing warmongering cannot be rewarded with a clean sheet while others are unjustly punished.
That double standard must stop.
ellenkampire