{"id":54414,"date":"2025-06-08T09:59:04","date_gmt":"2025-06-08T09:59:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/nduhungirehe-condemns-drc-s-manipulation-amid-rwanda-s-eccas-withdrawal\/"},"modified":"2025-06-10T17:39:29","modified_gmt":"2025-06-10T17:39:29","slug":"nduhungirehe-condemns-drc-s-manipulation-amid-rwanda-s-eccas-withdrawal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/nduhungirehe-condemns-drc-s-manipulation-amid-rwanda-s-eccas-withdrawal\/","title":{"rendered":"Nduhungirehe condemns DRC’s \u201cmanipulation\u201d amid Rwanda’s ECCAS withdrawal"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a post shared on X, Nduhungirehe described as \u201cunbelievable and unacceptable\u201d the DRC\u2019s ongoing efforts to rally accusations and sanctions against Rwanda in various regional and international fora, even as both countries are engaged in US-facilitated peace negotiations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable and unacceptable to note that\u2026 Rwanda and DRC are actively engaged, over the past month, into promising US-facilitated negotiations for a historic peace agreement, [yet] the DRC, nonetheless, is still whining around in all regional and international organisations accusing Rwanda for its own turpitudes,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

The minister’s remarks came moments after Rwanda announced its exit from ECCAS, citing a pattern of exclusion and deliberate obstruction led by the DRC, particularly during the 26th Ordinary Summit held on June 7 in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.<\/p>\n

According to Nduhungirehe, despite recent progress in diplomatic engagement\u2014including a March 18 meeting between Presidents Paul Kagame and F\u00e9lix Tshisekedi in Doha, and the signing of a Declaration of Principles between both countries in Washington on April 25\u2014the DRC continues to undermine trust-building efforts by pursuing parallel campaigns against Rwanda.<\/p>\n

\u201cRwanda is engaged in all current peace processes (AU\/EAC-SADC, Washington and Doha) in good faith and with a sense of responsibility,\u201d he stated, but warned that Kigali \u201cwill never accept the manipulation, by a reckless and hopeless DRC, of regional economic communities such as ECCAS.\u201d<\/p>\n

He further argued that ECCAS has no legitimate mandate to mediate the crisis in eastern DRC, a role already entrusted to the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), under the African Union\u2019s designated mediator, President Faure Gnassingb\u00e9 of Togo.<\/p>\n

The ECCAS dispute centres on what Rwanda has described as a violation of its rights under the organisation\u2019s founding treaty. <\/p>\n

In a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Kigali denounced the bloc\u2019s failure to grant it the rotating chairmanship from Equatorial Guinea, as provided for under Article 6 of the ECCAS Treaty. <\/p>\n

Instead, DRC opposed this, an act Rwanda views as a politically motivated breach of protocol.<\/p>\n

This latest fallout adds to already strained ties between Rwanda and the DRC, whose relationship has been marred by mistrust. While Kinshasa accuses Kigali of supporting the M23 rebel movement operating in eastern Congo, Rwanda has repeatedly rejected the claims and has instead called out the DRC for its continued collaboration with the FDLR, a militia group linked to the perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.<\/p>\n

With Rwanda now formally out of ECCAS, attention shifts back to ongoing diplomatic efforts in Washington, Doha, and under AU-mandated mediation. However, Minister Nduhungirehe\u2019s remarks suggest that Kigali is growing increasingly impatient with what it sees as duplicity from its counterpart in Kinshasa.<\/p>\n

\"Rwanda\u2019s<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rwanda\u2019s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Olivier Nduhungirehe, has hit out at the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for what he calls the \u201cmanipulation\u201d of regional bodies to serve narrow political ends, following Rwanda\u2019s decision to withdraw from the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000088781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[192],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-54414","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":2000088781,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/pic-19-586a3-0097e-21ef2.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/pic-19-586a3-0097e-21ef2.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/pic-19-586a3-0097e-21ef2.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/pic-19-586a3-0097e-21ef2.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/pic-19-586a3-0097e-21ef2.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/pic-19-586a3-0097e-21ef2.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54414","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=54414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000088781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54414"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=54414"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=54414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}