Why Congo and Rwanda Are at Each Other’s Throats

Violence in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo is escalating and fears are mounting of a wider conflict in what has long been one of Africa’s most volatile regions. President Felix Tshisekedi accuses his counterpart in neighboring Rwanda, Paul Kagame, of supporting a rebel group known as M23. Kagame denies the allegation and counters that Tshisekedi’s inability to control events in his own country poses a security risk to Rwanda. The acrimony reached new heights in late January, when Rwanda’s army shot and damaged a Congolese fighter jet that it says violated its airspace. An intensification in violence would further slow the development of Congo’s resource-rich east and exacerbate poverty in one of the world’s poorest places.

Rwanda says its biggest concern is the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR, one of more than 120 armed groups that are active in eastern Congo. The FDLR was created by ethnic Hutus from Rwanda with links to the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide in their country, during which at least 850,000 people died, mostly ethnic Tutsis. The M23 says it’s fighting the FDLR to protect Congolese Tutsis who face discrimination. Congo’s army has occasionally worked with the FDLR, whose ranks have been decimated over the past decade, to fight M23 and other adversaries. Rwanda and United Nations experts say this is happening once again. Tshisekedi’s administration argues that what Rwanda is really interested in is Congo’s bountiful minerals, and any other issues raised are merely a smokescreen. While all-out war is considered unlikely, neither side appears ready to back down.