🔗 Share this article

The DRC has labeled the European Union's continued minerals agreement with Rwanda as demonstrating "clear double standards" while enforcing significantly wider penalties in response to the Ukrainian crisis.

Government Sharp Rebuke

Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner, the Congo's international affairs chief, demanded the EU to impose significantly tougher sanctions against Rwanda, which has been alleged to exacerbate the violence in eastern DRC.

"This demonstrates clear double standards – I strive to be constructive here – that has us questioning and interested about understanding why the EU again struggles so much to enact sanctions," she stated.

Ceasefire Deal Context

The DRC and Rwanda agreed to a peace agreement in June, facilitated by the US and Qatar, intending to resolve the long-standing conflict.

However, fatal assaults on ordinary citizens have persisted and a target date to achieve a comprehensive peace agreement was passed without success in August.

UN Report

Last year, a United Nations panel found that up to 4,000 Rwandan troops were operating with the M23 insurgent faction and that the Rwandan military was in "actual command of M23 operations."

Rwanda has continually refuted assisting M23 and maintains its forces act in self-protection.

Leadership Call

The DRC president, Félix Tshisekedi, recently urged his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame, to end assistance to militants in the DRC during a Brussels event attended by both leaders.

"This demands you to order the M23 troops supported by your country to halt this intensification, which has already resulted in enough deaths," the leader emphasized.

International Restrictions

The EU has enacted measures targeting 32 persons and two groups – a militant group and a Rwandan gold refiner processing contraband materials of the metal – for their participation in intensifying the conflict.

Despite these determinations of international law breaches by the Rwandan army in the DRC, the European Commission has rejected demands to cancel a 2024 resource partnership with Kigali.

Economic Implications

Wagner described the memorandum of understanding with Rwanda as "lacking all legitimacy in a context where it has been established that Rwanda has been diverting Congolese resources" extracted under brutal conditions of compulsory work, affecting children.

The United States and numerous nations have raised concerns about illicit commerce in precious metals in eastern Congo, extracted via coerced employment, then illegally transported to Rwanda for shipment to benefit militant factions.

Humanitarian Crisis

The violence in Congo's east remains one of the world's gravest emergency situations, with more than 7.8 million people forced from homes in the region and 28 million facing nutritional challenges, including 4 million at crisis conditions, according to UN assessments.

International Engagement

As the DRC's chief diplomat, Wagner signed the agreement with Rwanda at the US presidential residence in June, which also seeks to give the United States expanded opportunity to Congolese natural resources.

She stated that the US remains involved in the resolution efforts and denied suggestions that sole motivation was the DRC's significant natural resources.

European Partnership

The EU leader, Ursula von der Leyen, commenced a gathering by declaring that the EU wanted "cooperation based on common interests and respect for sovereignty."

She featured the Lobito corridor – multi-modal transport links – joining the mineral heartlands of the DRC and Zambia to Angola's ocean access.

Wagner recognized that the EU and DRC had a firm groundwork in the Lobito project, but "much has been diminished by the conflict in Congo's east."