{"id":52437,"date":"2024-12-29T16:52:10","date_gmt":"2024-12-29T16:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/nduhungirehe-tells-off-congolese-army-over-false-rdf-soldier-claims\/"},"modified":"2024-12-31T12:14:21","modified_gmt":"2024-12-31T12:14:21","slug":"nduhungirehe-tells-off-congolese-army-over-false-rdf-soldier-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/nduhungirehe-tells-off-congolese-army-over-false-rdf-soldier-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"Nduhungirehe tells off Congolese army over false RDF soldier claims"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a statement on Sunday, December 29, 2024, the Minister called out the Congolese army over &#8220;incompetence&#8221; both on the battlefield and in spreading what he described as &#8220;mediocre fake news.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>Nduhungirehe&#8217;s remarks came after the Congolese army paraded a man, identified as Hakizimana Iradukunda Jean de Dieu, as an RDF soldier allegedly captured in North Kivu during operations on December 21.  <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;FARDC presents us with a so-called soldier of the RDF who does not know his unit or his commander, and who cannot provide his registration number within the Rwandan army,&#8221; Nduhungirehe stated. <\/p>\n<p>He further highlighted inconsistencies in the man\u2019s testimony, particularly his claimed origins from administrative subdivisions\u2014such as &#8220;Murenge&#8221; and &#8220;Kazabi&#8221;\u2014which he said exist in the DRC but not in Rwanda.  <\/p>\n<p>The Minister noted that Rwanda\u2019s administrative divisions include districts, sectors, cells, and villages, none of which align with the alleged origins of the supposed RDF soldier.  <\/p>\n<p>Nduhungirehe also pointed out FARDC\u2019s history of similar allegations. He recalled a February incident when the Congolese army introduced &#8220;Ndayambaje Abouba&#8221; as an RDF soldier. However, the same individual had previously been presented by FARDC in civilian clothing under suspicious circumstances.  <\/p>\n<p>\u201cClearly, FARDC, failing to be a war machine on the ground, have become a #FakeNews manufacturing plant!\u201d the Minister declared.  <\/p>\n<p>{{RDF Dismisses Allegations<br \/>\n}}<\/p>\n<p>The Minister&#8217;s remarks come two days after RDF also dismissed the claims as fake news.<\/p>\n<p>In a video shared by FARDC, the alleged soldier claimed he was born in Ngororero District and had been stationed in the DRC for over a year. The man also alleged the deployment of four RDF divisions to eastern DRC.  <\/p>\n<p>Rwanda has consistently denied involvement in the conflict in eastern DRC, where the M23 rebel group has been fighting the Congolese army and allied forces. <\/p>\n<p>Kigali has repeatedly accused FARDC of harbouring and supporting the FDLR, a militia composed of remnants of the perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.<\/p>\n<p>The Rwandan government asserts that the Congolese leadership\u2019s persistent accusations are attempts to divert attention from internal challenges and failures to address the concerns of their citizens in eastern DRC.<\/p>\n<p>This has resulted in strained diplomatic ties between Rwanda and the DRC, with[ efforts to resolve the stalemate continuing to encounter obstacles->https:\/\/en.igihe.com\/politics-48\/article\/talks-between-president-kagame-tshisekedi-postponed?var_mode=calcul].<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-79518 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/ndhu-3dd8e.jpg\" alt=\"Rwanda&#039;s Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe has dismissed recent claims by the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) about capturing a Rwandan Defence Force (RDF) soldier, terming them as a baseless attempt to spread disinformation.  \" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rwanda&#8217;s Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe has dismissed recent claims by the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) about capturing a Rwandan Defence Force (RDF) soldier, terming them as a baseless attempt to spread disinformation.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000079517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[192],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-52437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-wycliffe-nyamasege"],"bylines":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"contributors":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"featured_image":{"id":2000079517,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/ndhu-3dd8e.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/ndhu-3dd8e.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/ndhu-3dd8e.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/ndhu-3dd8e.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/ndhu-3dd8e.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/ndhu-3dd8e.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000079517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52437"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=52437"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=52437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}