{"id":54428,"date":"2025-06-10T10:31:30","date_gmt":"2025-06-10T10:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/no-great-loss-for-rwanda-former-us-diplomat-reacts-to-eccas-exit\/"},"modified":"2025-06-10T10:09:21","modified_gmt":"2025-06-10T10:09:21","slug":"no-great-loss-for-rwanda-former-us-diplomat-reacts-to-eccas-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/no-great-loss-for-rwanda-former-us-diplomat-reacts-to-eccas-exit\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018No great loss for Rwanda\u2019: Former US diplomat reacts to ECCAS exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nagy, who served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs during President Donald Trump’s first term from 2018 to 2021, said ECCAS was already a weak institution offering little beyond routine meetings.<\/p>\n

\u201cRwanda leaving the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) is no great loss to the nation,\u201d Nagy stated in a post on X. <\/p>\n

\u201cECCAS is the least effective of Africa\u2019s regional blocs, doing little more than having meetings. ECCAS will be worse off without Rwanda than vice versa,” he added.<\/p>\n

\n

Rwanda leaving The Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) is no great loss to the nation. ECCAS is the least effective of Africa's regional blocks doing little more than having meetings. ECCAS will be worse off without Rwanda than vice versa.https:\/\/t.co\/qNUTHADFyf<\/a><\/p>\n

— Tibor Nagy (@TiborPNagyJr) June 9, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The seasoned diplomat, who previously served as ambassador to Guinea and Ethiopia, commented on the matter just days after Rwanda exited the 11-member regional bloc during the 26th Ordinary Summit held in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, on Saturday, June 7, 2025.<\/p>\n

The decision followed what the government described as sustained hostility and manipulation by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), particularly efforts to block Rwanda from assuming the bloc\u2019s rotating chairmanship, an act Kigali says violated the ECCAS Treaty.<\/p>\n

Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Ambassador Olivier Nduhungirehe, accused the DRC of using ECCAS as a platform to legitimise its aggressive posture toward Rwanda while derailing regional peace efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s sad to see a community of 11 member states being manipulated by a single country,\u201d Nduhungirehe told state broadcaster RBA on Sunday. <\/p>\n

The minister pointed to ECCAS\u2019s long-standing governance failures, including the lack of financial audits since 2015, poor leadership, and what he termed an erosion of credibility.<\/p>\n

In a strongly worded statement while announcing the exit on Saturday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Rwanda\u2019s rights under the ECCAS charter had been \u201cdeliberately ignored.\u201d <\/p>\n

The bloc bypassed the agreed-upon rotational system based on the French alphabetical order, choosing instead to extend Equatorial Guinea\u2019s chairmanship, citing Rwanda\u2019s alleged role in the eastern DRC conflict.<\/p>\n

Rwanda has repeatedly rejected accusations of supporting the M23 rebel group, turning the spotlight instead on the DRC\u2019s cooperation with the FDLR, a genocidal militia linked to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. <\/p>\n

Kigali has also condemned repeated cross-border shelling, including a deadly incident in January that left 16 people dead and over 160 injured.<\/p>\n

On Monday, June 9, the Cabinet reaffirmed the decision to withdraw, stressing that participation in ECCAS was no longer tenable given the bloc\u2019s failure to uphold its own principles of equality, respect, and good neighbourliness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe DRC continues to finance and support the FDLR, a UN-sanctioned genocidal militia, while ECCAS looks away,\u201d the Cabinet said in a communiqu\u00e9 issued after its meeting chaired by Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente. <\/p>\n

The Cabinet also cited President F\u00e9lix Tshisekedi\u2019s repeated threats to overthrow Rwanda\u2019s government as further evidence of the DRC\u2019s belligerence.<\/p>\n

Despite its departure, Rwanda says it remains committed to regional peace and will continue participating in other economic communities, including the East African Community and COMESA. It also reaffirmed support for ongoing mediation initiatives led by the United States and Qatar, which aim to broker peace between Rwanda and the DRC.<\/p>\n

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

Former top U.S. diplomat Tibor Nagy has weighed in on Rwanda\u2019s withdrawal from the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), describing the move as more damaging to the regional bloc than to Kigali.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000088832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[192],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-54428","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":2000088832,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/2020_01_tibor_jpg.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/2020_01_tibor_jpg.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/2020_01_tibor_jpg.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/2020_01_tibor_jpg.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/2020_01_tibor_jpg.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/2020_01_tibor_jpg.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54428","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=54428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000088832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54428"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=54428"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=54428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}