Why Relations Between Congo and Rwanda Are So Toxic

Almost 7 million people have been displaced by violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, one of Africa’s most volatile regions, and fears are mounting of a heightened conflict. President Felix Tshisekedi accuses his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame of supporting a rebel group known as M23. Kagame denies the allegation and counters that Tshisekedi’s inability to control events in his own country poses a security risk to Rwanda. The acrimony has escalated in 2024, with the rebels expanding their territory around the trading hub of Goma and seizing control of routes used to export tantalum, a key mineral in portable electronics. The fighting threatens to further slow the development of Congo’s resource-rich east and exacerbate poverty in one of the world’s poorest places.

Rwanda says its biggest concern is the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR, one of more than 120 armed groups that are active in eastern Congo. The FDLR was created by ethnic Hutus from Rwanda with links to the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide in their country that left at least 850,000 people dead. Most of the victims were ethnic Tutsis. The M23 says it’s fighting the FDLR to protect Congolese Tutsis who face discrimination. Congo’s army has worked with the FDLR, whose ranks have been decimated over the past decade, to fight M23 and other adversaries. Tshisekedi’s administration argues that what Rwanda is really interested in is Congo’s bountiful minerals, and any other issues raised are merely a smokescreen.