Rising tensions between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda have heightened the risk of a military confrontation that could draw in Burundi, the top UN official in Congo has warned the Security Council.
Special representative Bintou Keita’s warning on Monday came shortly before the ambassadors from the neighbouring DRC and Rwanda traded accusations in the council.
The DRC holds a presidential election on December 20 in which president Felix Tshisekedi is seeking a second term against two dozen candidates.
As voting nears, the government is pushing to have regional and international peacekeeping forces withdraw, including more than a 17,700-strong UN force.
A regional force of officers from East African countries began leaving the DRC’s largest city Goma last week.
Mr Tshisekedi has long accused Rwanda and its president Paul Kagame of providing military support to M23 rebels, the latest iteration of Congolese Tutsi fighters to seize towns in parts of mineral-rich North Kivu.
The UN and human rights groups accuse M23 of atrocities including rape and mass killings and say it receives backing from Rwanda, which denies any ties with the rebels.
Ms Keita told the council the eastern provinces are facing escalating insecurity “especially related to the renewed M23 crisis.”
She said new pockets of insecurity also have emerged in other parts of the country, notably the Greater Katanga region and Mai-Ndombe and Tshopo provinces, and that insecurity “has compounded the ongoing humanitarian crisis”.
According to the UN humanitarian office, more than 6.5 million people are displaced in the DRC, 5.5 million of them in the three eastern provinces.
DRC ambassador Zenon Mukongo accused Rwandan soldiers of supporting the M23 rebels and reiterated his country’s call for “an end to the Rwandan aggression”, withdrawal of its troops and “the eradication of armed interest groups in Congo including M23”. He urged the Security Council to take action to achieve this.
Rwanda’s new UN ambassador Ernest Rwamucyo accused the neighbouring government “and its coalition of illegal armed militia groups… and foreign mercenaries” of violating a regionally brokered peace process.
He said DRC’s termination of the African regional force “undermines all the regional efforts to bring peace” to the east of the country and urged the government to recommit to the agreements.
Ms Keita said election campaigning began relatively peacefully but “violent clashes between supporters of rival political parties are occurring in many provinces”.
President Tshisekedi told a rally on Sunday that the United Nations “came to help and protect the Congolese people, but it didn’t work”.
