Rwandan President Paul Kagame has said he does not mind his country being excluded from a regional military force fighting rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo, removing a potential obstacle to the initiative. The seven countries of the East African Community (EAC) agreed in April to create a joint force to try to end decades of bloodshed in the eastern parts of Congo. Congo welcomed the plan but said it would not accept the participation of Rwanda, which it accuses of supporting rebels – a charge Rwanda denies. “I have no problem with that. We are not begging anyone to join the force,” Kagame told Rwanda’s state broadcaster on Monday. “If someone comes from anywhere but Rwanda, but will provide the solution we’re all looking for, why should I have a problem?” Kagame asked in the wide-ranging interview. Congo has accused Rwanda of supporting the M23 rebel group, which has been waging its most sustained offensive on Congo’s eastern border since seizing vast swaths of territory in 2012-2013. Rwanda denies supporting the rebels and in turn accuses the Congolese army of firing into Rwandan territory and fighting alongside the Forces Democratiques de Liberation du Rwanda (FDLR), an armed group run by ethnic Hutus who fled from Rwanda after their involvement in the 1994 genocide. The EAC has invited local armed groups to join a political process to resolve their grievances or “be dealt with militarily”, the office of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, who is the EAC chairman, said in April. Recent efforts to stop the violence militarily have proved unsuccessful and in some cases failed, security analysts and human rights groups say. Despite billions of dollars spent on one of the United Nations’ largest peacekeeping forces, more than 120 rebel groups continue to operate in large swathes of eastern Congo nearly two decades after the central African country’s civil wars officially ended.
