Online Reporter
The Democratic Republic of Congo said it has filed a case against Rwanda at the International Court of Justice over its role in the long-running conflict in the eastern DRC.
Kinshasa accuses Kigali of backing the M23 rebel movement, which controls large swathes of territory in the east after a lightning advance last year. Rwanda, for its part, says the DRC is fighting alongside the FDLR, a Congo-based group that includes remnants of those responsible for Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.
The decades-long conflict is rooted in the genocide, after remnants of the forces associated with the genocide fled across the border into Congo.
Leaders of the two countries signed a United States-brokered deal in Washington last year to de-escalate fighting in Congo’s restive eastern provinces. But in a statement on Friday, Kinshasa accused Kigali of breaching international conventions, including those on genocide, racial discrimination and torture.
It said the alleged crimes, committed against civilians over three decades, included massacres, extrajudicial killings, torture, sexual violence and forced displacement. The DRC is calling on the United Nations (UN) court to order Rwanda to cease the alleged violations and award reparations to the state and victims.
There was no immediate response from the Rwandan government.
Kigali has consistently denied allegations that it backs any rebel groups operating in Congo. But UN experts and Western governments have sided with the DRC in finding Rwanda responsible for providing support to M23 militants.
Relations between the two countries are severely strained over the conflict and the filing opens a new legal front in one of Africa’s longest-running disputes. — Wires
