The protocol signed by Kinshasa and the FDLR breaches a US-mediated peace deal, Kigali has said<\/p>\n
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) and Rwanda have traded accusations over a proposed plan to disarm a militant group operating on the Congolese side of their shared border, exposing renewed tensions over a peace deal mediated by US President Donald Trump.
\nKinshasa announced on Tuesday that the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) has signed a protocol covering disarmament, demobilization, and relocation to designated cantonment sites.
\nCongolese Regional Integration Minister Floribert Anzuluni said FDLR members would not be forcibly returned to Rwanda, while fighters and their dependents could relocate to a third country if conditions for voluntary repatriation were not met. He said there was no agreed estimate of the number involved, while the cantonment sites and implementation timetable were still being determined.<\/p>\n
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Trump hails \u2018historic\u2019 African peace deal<\/p>\n
The FDLR, formed by ethnic Hutu fighters including some linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, has operated in eastern DR Congo for decades. Kigali has accused Congolese forces of cooperating with the group, which it considers a threat to Rwanda.
\nCongolese government spokesman Patrick Muyaya described the protocol as a \u201cmajor turning point\u201d in addressing the FDLR issue, saying it complies with the Washington Accords and demonstrates Kinshasa\u2019s progress toward fulfilling its commitments.
\nHe accused Rwanda of using the FDLR\u2019s presence as a pretext to justify aggression against DR Congo for 30 years.
\nRwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe rejected the protocol as a \u201cdelaying maneuver\u201d by Kinshasa, arguing that the FDLR is not a party to the Washington Accords but the armed group targeted by their security provisions.
\n\u201cThe FDLR genocidaires are not a party to these accords; they are instead their subject,\u201d he wrote on X, adding that DR Congo\u2019s principal security obligation was supposed to be fulfilled within 90 days.
\nNduhungirehe also accused Kinshasa of intensifying military support for the FDLR and integrating many of its fighters into the Congolese army since the accords were signed on December 4, 2025. DR Congo has previously denied supporting the armed group.<\/p>\n
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US \u2018peace\u2019 in Doha comes with extraction rights attached<\/p>\n
The leaders of DR Congo and Rwanda formalized the Washington Accords for Peace and Prosperity in the US capital last December. The deal commits both sides to respect each other\u2019s sovereignty and territorial integrity, cease hostilities, support the disengagement of armed forces, facilitate the return of refugees, and promote regional economic cooperation. It requires Kinshasa to neutralize the FDLR and Rwanda to lift its \u201cdefensive measures,\u201d which DR Congo says means withdrawing Rwandan troops from its territory.
\nRelations between the two African states have been strained for decades by the rebel war in eastern Congo. Kinshasa has repeatedly accused Kigali of backing the M23 rebel group, allegations the Rwandan government has denied.
\nThousands have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced since fighting between M23 and Congolese forces escalated in January 2025, with the rebels seizing Goma, the capital of North Kivu, and Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The protocol signed by Kinshasa and the FDLR breaches a US-mediated peace deal, Kigali has said The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) and Rwanda have traded accusations over…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37319\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}