Why Rwanda is quitting ECCAS – again?
Rwanda is accusing Kinshasa of instrumentalising regional and international organisations to sanction Kigali over the war in eastern Congo, despite several initiatives seeking peace and a solution to the Congo crisis.'It's unbelievable and unacceptable to note that, whereas President Tshisekedi met President Kagame in a fruitful meeting in Doha, Qatar, on March 18, 2025, whereas (Foreign) Minister (Thérèse) Kayikwamba and myself signed a Declaration of Principles in Washington on April 25, 2025, and whereas Rwanda and DRC are actively engaged, over the past month, into promising US-facilitated negotiations for a historic peace agreement, the DRC, nonetheless, is still whining around in all regional and international organisations accusing Rwanda for its own turpitudes, not to mention crying out for sanctions' Rwanda Minister of Foreign Affairs Olivier Nduhungirehe posted on social media platform X.
This came after Kigali issued a statement announcing its decision to pull out of the regional bloc, Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) over its 'instrumentalisation' by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), 'with the support of certain member states.''This distortion of the organisation's purpose was once again evident during the 26th Ordinary Summit held today in Malabo, where Rwanda's right to assume the rotating Chairmanship, stipulated in Article 6 of the Treaty, was deliberately ignored in order to impose the DRC's diktat,' Rwanda Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in. a statement Saturday.
Kigali said it had written to the Chairperson of the African Union denouncing its 'illegal exclusion' from the 22nd Summit held in 2023 in Kinshasa under the DRC's presidency.'The silence and inaction that followed confirm the organisation's failure to enforce its own rules. Rwanda denounces the violation of its rights as guaranteed by the constitutive texts of ECCAS. Consequently, Rwanda sees no justification for remaining in an organisation whose current functioning runs counter to its founding principles and intended purpose," Kigali said.
Rwanda, an ECCAS founding member since 1983, is not quitting the bloc for the first time. It only returned in 2016 after eight years. It quit the organisation in 2007 'to concentrate on its membership in other blocs such as East African Community and Comesa.'When it returned, it said it wanted to widen its business and economic horizons, and reposition itself for political and diplomatic gains.
But, as relations between Kigali and Kinshasa collapsed, owing to DRC's accusations that Rwanda has been backing M23 rebels bent on removing the establishment in Kinshasa.
This latest development underscores the bad blood the two neighbours despite several ongoing arbitration processes.
Although there has been a thaw in hostilities in eastern DRC following engagements between the rebels and DRC leadership, the war is still long from over.
The US and Qatar meetings have brought a reprieve, and the mineral deals the US dangled seemed to attract interest from both countries, but the engagements are yet to bring tangible outcomes.
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