{"id":54420,"date":"2025-06-09T11:21:15","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T11:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/nduhungirehe-exposes-eccas-s-governance-audit-failures\/"},"modified":"2025-06-09T11:27:57","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T11:27:57","slug":"nduhungirehe-exposes-eccas-s-governance-audit-failures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/nduhungirehe-exposes-eccas-s-governance-audit-failures\/","title":{"rendered":"Nduhungirehe exposes ECCAS governance, audit failures"},"content":{"rendered":"

Speaking in an interview with the Rwanda Broadcasting Agency (RBA) on Sunday, June 8, Nduhungirehe described ECCAS as one of the least effective regional economic communities in the African Union, citing its dysfunctional leadership and failure to conduct audits of member states\u2019 funds for a decade.<\/p>\n

The minister\u2019s remarks follow Rwanda\u2019s abrupt exit from ECCAS on Saturday, during the 26th Ordinary Summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. <\/p>\n

Rwanda\u2019s withdrawal was triggered by what it called a deliberate violation of its treaty-given right to assume the rotating chairmanship, a move orchestrated by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and supported by certain ECCAS members. <\/p>\n

During the Sunday night interview, Nduhungirehe elaborated on the deeper issues plaguing ECCAS, emphasising its governance and financial mismanagement. <\/p>\n

\u201cECCAS has been a dysfunctional regional economic community, one of the least effective of all regional economic communities of the African Union,\u201d he stated. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have issues of integration, of infrastructure, and of governance. We have a president of the commission who doesn\u2019t act together with other commissioners. We have issues of audits since 2015 and 2020; we have never had any audit of the use of our money\u2014the money of member states.\u201d<\/p>\n

The issues, combined with broader governance failures, such as the organisation\u2019s inability to adhere to its own treaty and the exclusion of Rwanda from key discussions, fueled Kigali\u2019s decision to leave the 11-member bloc, established in 1983 to promote economic integration in Central Africa.<\/p>\n

Nduhungirehe also pointed to a pattern of marginalisation within ECCAS, citing a 2023 incident when the DRC, as chair, prevented Rwanda from speaking at the 22nd Summit in Kinshasa.<\/p>\n

Rwanda\u2019s formal protest to the African Union went unanswered, further highlighting ECCAS\u2019s governance shortcomings. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere has been a general issue of effectiveness and governance in ECCAS,\u201d Nduhungirehe said, noting that the DRC\u2019s recent move to block Rwanda\u2019s chairmanship was \u201cthe straw that broke the camel\u2019s back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The withdrawal marks a major shift in Central Africa\u2019s diplomatic landscape, particularly amid ongoing tensions between Rwanda and the DRC over security issues in eastern Congo. <\/p>\n

While Rwanda has exited ECCAS, Nduhungirehe emphasised that the country will continue to engage with other regional bodies, such as the East African Community (EAC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). <\/p>\n

He also reaffirmed Rwanda\u2019s commitment to ongoing peace processes, including negotiations mediated by the AU and talks in Doha and Washington, despite what he described as the DRC\u2019s unprincipled actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s sad and unfortunate to see a community of 11 member states being manipulated by a single country,\u201d Nduhungirehe said, lamenting ECCAS\u2019s failure to uphold its founding principles of regional integration and cooperation. <\/p>\n

He expressed hope that other member states, including Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 and Pr\u00edncipe, would recognise the organisation\u2019s flawed trajectory.<\/p>\n

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

Rwanda\u2019s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Ambassador Olivier Nduhungirehe, has highlighted systemic governance failures and a lack of financial accountability within the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) following Rwanda’s exit from the regional bloc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000088814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[192],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-54420","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":2000088814,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/myxwig6n-85737.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/myxwig6n-85737.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/myxwig6n-85737.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/myxwig6n-85737.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/myxwig6n-85737.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/myxwig6n-85737.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54420","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=54420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000088814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54420"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=54420"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=54420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}