President Paul Kagame of Rwanda speaking about his conversation with President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa and what led to the escalation yesterday.
What triggered this?
South African Defence Minister Angie Motshekga gave a press briefing where she said President Ramaphosa gave a warning to Rwanda (President Kagame).
She said President Cyril Ramaphosa had to issue a warning to Rwandan forces, stating that continued hostilities against the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) in the DRC would be considered a declaration of war.
See👉🏿 x.com/sabcnews/status/1884597025817169988?s=46
That statement was followed by President Ramaphosa’s remarks, in which he called the Rwanda Defence Force a militia.
See👉🏿 x.com/cyrilramaphosa/status/1884551152542404998?s=46
Kigali took exception to these two statements, starting with Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Jean Patrick Nduhungirehe calling the South African Defence Minister a liar. See👉🏿 x.com/onduhungirehe/status/1884618059505369113?s=48
President Kagame followed up with a tweet challenging President Ramaphosa’s version of events, adding that the South African president had confirmed to him that the South African soldiers who were killed were killed by the Congolese army, rather than M23, which is made up of Banyarwanda of Congolese origin.
See👉🏿 x.com/paulkagame/status/1884711263327887849?s=46
What is important is for African leaders to talk and de-escalate the rising tensions, and it is crucial for all Africans not to treat this as a video game-real people are dying.
Africa needs peace, not war, and peace comes through dialogue!
The problem we have is that some people are getting fixated on peripheral and symptomatic issues instead of seeking to address the root cause of the crisis.
This problem dates back to the 1960s, when both President Kagame of Rwanda and President Félix Antoine Tshisekedi of the DRC were little kids.
The video below is of President Kagame speaking last night in a virtual meeting of East African presidents which Tshisekedi boycotted.