NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 30 – President Paul Kagame has told off his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa, over Pretoria’s labeling of the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) as a militia.
“The Rwanda Defence Force is an army, not a militia,” Kagame said in a strongly worded statement on Thursday.
Responding to Ramaphosa’s assessment of the situation in Eastern DRC, where South African forces are deployed as part of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Mission, Kagame accused South Africa of distortion.
“What has been said about these conversations in the media by South African officials and President Ramaphosa himself contains a lot of distortion, deliberate attacks, and even lies,” he said.
“If words can change so much from a conversation to a public statement, it says a lot about how these very important issues are being managed,” Kagame retorted.
His response came amid spiraling tensions between Rwanda and the DRC after M23 rebels seized the city of Goma, having repulsed Congo’s military and allied mercenaries.
While confirming that he indeed had a conversation with Ramaphosa on two occasions, including on Thursday, Kagame dismissed reports that the South African leader had warned him.
“President Ramaphosa has never given a ‘warning’ of any kind, unless it was delivered in his local language, which I do not understand,” Kagame stated in an X post tagging Ramaphosa.
No role for South Africa in DRC
The Rwandan leader, who has denied supporting M23 rebels in Eastern DRC despite repeated assessments by international observers, dismissed the SADC mission, SAMIDRC, as “a belligerent,” saying the regional force “has no place in this situation.”
“It (SAMIDRC) was authorized by SADC as a belligerent force engaging in offensive combat operations to help the DRC Government fight against its own people, working alongside genocidal armed groups like FDLR, which target Rwanda, while also threatening to take the war to Rwanda itself,” he said.
Kagame went on to accuse SADC of “displacing” the East African Community Regional Force (EAC-RF), a development he said worsened the situation in Eastern DRC.
“SAMIDRC displaced a true peacekeeping force, the East African Community Regional Force, and this contributed to the failure of the negotiation processes.”
He added that South Africa could not take the role of a peacemaker in the conflict, warning of a decisive response.
“And if South Africa prefers confrontation, Rwanda will deal with the matter in that context any day.”
Kagame’s response came as the EAC called for a joint meeting with SADC during an emergency summit chaired by President William Ruto on Wednesday evening.
The EAC Summit, which DRC’s Felix Tshisekedi snubbed despite his country’s admission to the bloc in March 2022, called for an unconditional ceasefire in Eastern DRC.
The Summit also called on the DRC to engage all stakeholders and aggrieved parties, including the M23.
EAC leaders also expressed concerns over attacks and looting of foreign missions, including the embassies of Kenya and Uganda, urging the DRC to protect the diplomatic posts in line with its international obligations.
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