Rwanda President Paul Kagame has warned South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa that although Rwanda prefers peace, it will, without doubt, respond to any “confrontation” from any force that threatens its sovereignty or defence forces.

Responding Thursday to an earlier statement issued by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday, Kagame accused the South African government of peddling lies, distorting facts and getting involved in the affairs of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Ramaphosa has faced backlash at home in South Africa following the killing of at least 13 South African soldiers in DRC last week as the M23 rebels advanced to eastern DRC’s biggest city, Goma. South African forces are among the many foreign forces in DRC involved in either peacekeeping or combat operations.

Below are the statements from the two presidents:

PAUL KAGAME

I held two conversations this week with President Ramaphosa on the situation in Eastern DRC, including earlier today. What has been said about these conversations in the media by South African officials and President Ramaphosa himself contains a lot of distortion, deliberate attacks, and even lies. If words can change so much from a conversation to a public statement, it says a lot about how these very important issues are being managed.

A few important clarifications for the record:

1. The Rwanda Defence Force is an army, not a militia.

2. SAMIDRC is not a peacekeeping force, and it has no place in this situation. It was authorized by SADC as a belligerent force engaging in offensive combat operations to help the DRC Government fight against its own people, working alongside genocidal armed groups like FDLR which target Rwanda, while also threatening to take the war to Rwanda itself.

3. SAMIDRC displaced a true peacekeeping force, the East African Community Regional Force, and this contributed to the failure of the negotiation processes.

4. President Ramaphosa has never given a “warning” of any kind, unless it was delivered in his local language which I do not understand. He did ask for support to ensure the South African force has adequate electricity, food and water, which we shall help communicate.

5. President Ramaphosa confirmed to me that M23 did not kill the soldiers from South Africa, FARDC did.

6. If South Africa wants to contribute to peaceful solutions, that is well and good, but South Africa is in no position to take on the role of a peacemaker or mediator. And if South Africa prefers confrontation, Rwanda will deal with the matter in that context any day.

……………………………………………………….

CYRIL RAMAPHOSA

Fellow South Africans,

Following the recent intensification of fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Africa has lost 13 brave soldiers who were dedicated to their mission and committed to peace. The fighting is the result of an escalation by the rebel group M23 and Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) militia engaging the Armed Forces of the DRC (FARDC) and attacking peacekeepers from the SADC Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (SAMIDRC).

On behalf of the government and the people of our country, I express our sincerest condolences to their families, their loved ones and colleagues. We bow our heads in honor of their heroic and gallant fight for peace.

We honour and mourn them.

All necessary support is being provided to the families of the deceased and the families of the injured. The process to repatriate the remains of the deceased is underway.

The attacks on peacekeepers resulted in the deaths of SAMIDRC members from other troop contributing countries, namely, Malawi and Tanzania, as well members of the UN Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) brigade. We honour all the lives that were lost and pass our condolences to their families, governments and citizens. The situation in Goma and Sake, where our troops and their counterparts are stationed, remains very tense, volatile and unpredictable.

The Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Ms Angie Motshekga and the Chief of the SANDF Gen Rudzani Maphwanya and SAMIDRC Force Commander Maj Gen Monwabisi Dyakopu are working to ensure that the SAMIDRC forces remain well equipped and sufficiently supported during this critical mission.

We are concerned about the speculation about the state of our troops and the battle conditions. All South Africans must rally behind our brave men and women who have dedicated their lives to bringing peace in our continent.

South Africa’s military presence in the eastern DRC is not a declaration of war against any country or state. The members of the South African National Defence Force that are in the DRC are part of both SADC and United Nations efforts to bring peace and protect thousands of lives that are constantly threatened by the conflict in the DRC. The presence of the SAMIDRC forces demonstrates a commitment of SADC member states to supporting the DRC in its efforts to achieve lasting peace and stability and ultimately, create an enabling environment for sustainable development and prosperity.

We welcome the position that was recently adopted by the United Nations Security Council during its special sitting on the situation in the DRC, which calls for an immediate end to hostilities, the reversal of territorial expansion by the M23, the exit of external forces from the DRC and the resumption of peace talks under the Nairobi Process.

The territorial integrity of the DRC must be respected in accordance with the United Nations Charter on the respect of sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of other states.

We call on all parties to this conflict to fully embrace the current diplomatic efforts that are aimed at finding a peaceful resolution, including honoring the Luanda Process agreements. We must silence the guns on our continent for the attainment of inclusive development and prosperity.

I thank you.

Nb

There are many African leaders who are determined to stay put in state power at any cost until Jesus Christ comes back to earth. When they cannot manage to do that, they would rather buy in more local and foreign mercenaries to help them do that using tax payer’s hard earned money. Rwanda and Congo have got their citizens who certainly want peace and prosperity. They deserve better from the UN that has been playing with their lives over 50 years and counting. Congo people’s Referendums should be organised and not rigged for the world to properly understand what the citizens of these regions need. With modern social media well advanced globally but stubbornly controlled, the United Nation has the capability to enhance satellite communication in the Congo and Rwanda for free speech, to stop a repeat of genocide, and to bring out much of the atrocities that continue unabated in these African regions. Of course there are many billionares in Western countries who can pay for such costs. Those days of Patrice Lumumba, Joseph Kasavubu, Juvenal Habyarimana, Cypriena Ntaryamira and Joseph Mobutu African tribal victimizations and gruesome assassinations are long gone, where American CIA and Russian KGB or FSB used to play discreet dirty political games against African true sovereignty aspirations. Where the United Nation used to pretend not to see any thing wrong in killing battle fields many years ago, Tik-tok is nowadays bringing it all out to any one’s breakfast table. That is why many African brutal dictators nowadays hate international social media!

It is most probable that Mr Paul Kagame and Mr Cyril Ramaphosa were not even born yet when presently this special country of the Democratic Republic of the Congo provided rich Uranium to the American to stop the brutal madness of Asianic dictatorship of Japan to spread on planet earth! Social media states well that during that brutal Second World War around 1940/1945, The United States sought to secure all the uranium from the Shinkolobwe mine in present-day Democratic Republic of Congo for its atomic bomb project. The ore was the richest in the world. The US, determined to prevent any of it reaching Nazi Germany or later falling into the hands of the Soviet Union, took every precaution – including dispatching spies – to secure the supply of uranium. The story of this race for the ore is told in a newly published book, Spies in the Congo. These Western countries owe this African country their lives where first and second world wars were killing their grandparents in millions of lives every other year. They must come forward and assist the African Congo to become a stable, and prosperous country without these miserable military killing fields that constantly destroy lives.