Cooperation is not support”: Corneille Nangaa on Rwanda’s engagement with AFC/M23

Last week, Rwanda’s Ambassador to the United States, Mathilde Mukantabana, told U.S. lawmakers in Washington, D.C. that Rwanda cooperates with AFC/M23 on security matters. She said the cooperation is based on a shared objective of protecting Congolese Tutsi communities and countering the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), an armed group composed of individuals involved in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

Ambassador Mathilde Mukantabana said the scale of the crisis and its implications for Rwanda’s national security should not be underestimated, stressing that Rwanda’s position is rooted in transparency.

“The magnitude of this crisis and its impact on Rwanda’s security principles should not be trivialized,” she stated. “That is why Rwanda cooperates with AFC/M23 on security matters. I am stating this openly to build trust through transparency, she added.

She said that while both Rwanda and AFC/M23 share the objective of protecting Congolese Tutsis from attacks by the FDLR and armed groups allegedly supported by the Congolese army (FARDC), Rwanda’s broader concern is to prevent cross-border attacks similar to those experienced, which could once again threaten the country’s security.

Following her remarks, officials from the Democratic Republic of Congo, including government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya, Burundi’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Edouard Bizimana, and several international media outlets interpreted the statement as an admission that Rwanda supports AFC/M23 after years of denial.

Read this article:https://news.ingeri.rw/eng/rwanda-confirms-security-coordination-with-afcm23-citing-national-defense-imperatives

Speaking in an interview with IGIHE in Goma, AFC/M23 leader Corneille Nangaa said such interpretations were misleading, arguing that cooperation should not be equated with support.

“As we say in French, does cooperation mean support? No,” Nangaa said. “Do we cooperate with Rwanda? Yes, but not only with Rwanda. We also cooperate with Uganda. We share the same security concern: the continued existence of the FDLR," he noted.

He said the FDLR operates from Congolese territory, killing civilians and creating insecurity, making its dismantling a shared concern for both AFC/M23 and neighboring countries. He said that FDLR is a terrorist organization whose explicit objective is to destabilize the Government of Rwanda.

“FDLR is in Congo. They kill people and destabilize the country. That is the problem we have in common,” Nangaa said, citing the arrest and transfer of captured FDLR fighters as an example of such cooperation.

AFC/M23 has controlled the city of Goma for a year following intense fighting against Congolese government forces, troops from South Africa, Tanzania and Malawi deployed under SADC, the solders deployed under the United Nations peacekeeping mission (MONUSCO), and local armed groups known as Wazalendo. Nearly three weeks later, the coalition also took control of Bukavu in South Kivu.

AFC/M23 leaders: Corneille Nangaa & Gen Sultan Makenga

Since then, border crossings at Grande Barrière, Petite Barrière, Rusizi and Bugarama have remained operational, allowing movement between Rwanda and areas under AFC/M23 control. The coalition says this situation requires coordination to maintain security, as more than 40,000 people cross these borders daily.

Nangaa said such cooperation is necessary to ensure the safety of civilians, traders, journalists, foreigners and other travelers moving between Rwanda, Congo and the region.

He also confirmed that AFC/M23 maintains similar cooperation with Uganda at shared border points such as Bunagana and Ishasha to facilitate trade and movement between Kampala and North Kivu.

“It is not only Rwanda,” he said. “At Bunagana and Ishasha, we share borders with Uganda, and we cooperate in the same way so that people can reach Goma," he added.

AFC/M23 further stated that if an individual commits a crime in areas under its control and flees to Rwanda, the later does not extradite the suspect to Kinshasa but hands them back to local authorities in the area they fled from to face justice.

Nangaa questioned why Rwanda is singled out in accusations of support, while similar cooperation with Uganda is rarely mentioned, maintaining that its engagements with neighboring countries are solely based on civilian interests, cross-border security and regional stability.

@Igihe