The Head of State made the disclosure during an interview with RBA on Monday 4th July 2022 as Rwanda celebrated the Liberation Day.
He revealed that the issue of Kinyarwanda-speaking citizens in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was ignored until they formed armed groups including M23 to stand for their rights.
Kagame stated that Rwanda shared views regarding the durable solution when M23 was attacked and defeated in 2013.
“There was a crisis in 2012. I think. And this crisis drew in all kinds of countries and regions including international institutions like the UN, big countries, powers that decide on many things. And they made one mistake which we pointed out at that time, that such matters are not resolved by force of arms, they don’t require more military solutions, they require more political solutions,” he said.
“They ignored what we were telling them. They just fought the so called M23 without even understanding why it was born and how it came to be, defeated it and the remnants fled to countries, mainly, one group went to Uganda and another group came to Rwanda,” added Kagame.
Despite the military defeat, the Head of State said that Rwanda kept reminding them that a political solution still needed to be applied to address their matters but nothing was done.
Kagame underscored that Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese are citizens of the country where their presence in DRC should neither be blamed on Rwanda nor on Congo.
“How they became citizens of Congo cannot be blamed on Congo or cannot be blamed on Rwanda. […] How do you attain one point, just decide that you are going to declare people no longer citizens of their countries?” he wondered.
If their issues are not properly addressed, the Head of State observed that ‘the same people will always find ways of pushing back, fighting back and making sure that they belong to somewhere’.
“Saying that they belong to Rwanda is a big mistake because they have been in Congo all the years, and know Congo as their country,” he noted.
For the past few months, DRC has been accusing Rwanda of supporting M23 as the fighting between the rebel group and FARDC erupted.
However, a report released recently by UN experts on security issues in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) seemed to contradict the country’s accusations that Rwanda supports M23.
The UN report indicates that sources from the Expanded Joint Verification Mechanism (EJVM) do not point out any involvement of foreign countries in the resurgence of M23.
The EJVM is a mechanism of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) composed of military officers from the 12 member countries that is charged with monitoring and verification of border violations between DRC and neighbouring countries.
During a recent interview with DW ; the Spokesperson of M23, Maj Willy Ngoma said that the rebel group M23 didn’t receive any support.
He disclosed that some of used weapons were kept in their hideouts after defeat in 2013 while others are bought from Congolese soldiers or seized during the ongoing fight.
The report indicated that ‘the resurgence of M23 was fuelled by failure to implement peace accords of 12th December 2013’.
It also reads that M23 held talks with DRC Government but were called off in September 2020.
The negotiations had prompted M23 to release a statement announcing that dialogues between the regime of President Tshisekedi were promising to yield good results.
It further reveals that M23 had not resumed fighting until November 2021 when it launched an attack on FARDC military position that saw the rebel group killing soldiers and stealing arms, military uniforms and telecommunication gadgets.
The experts went on explaining that M23 plotted more attacks on FARDC bases in Rutshuru one month later and January 2022. Since then, the report indicates that M23 attacked more regions including Tshanzu, Gisiza, Ndiza and Runyoni.
President Kagame has said that those accusing Rwanda of supporting the rebel group raise false allegations.
He however blamed the collaboration between MONUSCO and Congolese Army which teamed up with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) during clashes with M23.
FDLR is comprised of remnant masterminds of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi who have been plotting different hit and run attacks on Rwanda.
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