Macron urges Rwanda to end support for DRC M23 rebels, withdraw troops

Rwanda must end support for M23 rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and withdraw troops from its neighbour's territory, French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday.

France's President Emmanuel Macron greets President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Felix Tshisekedi and his wife Denise Nyakzru Tshisekedi prior to a working lunch at the Elysee Palace, in Paris on 30 April 2024. AFP - ALAIN JOCARD

"Rwanda must halt its support for M23 and withdraw its forces from Congolese territory," Macron said at a joint press conference with the DRC president, Felix Tshisekedi, adding that "we argue for territorial integrity on the African continent as well" as in Europe following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Tshisekedi welcomed Paris's "even stronger support at the side of the Congolese people", saying it showed his country "can count on France".

He added that Kinshasa would be open to new talks with Kigali once its troops had left DRC territory.

The mostly Tutsi M23 rebellion began in late 2021, seizing large swathes of North Kivu province in the eastern DRC after eight years of relative peace.

According to DRC, the United Nations and Western countries, neighbouring Rwanda is backing the M23.

Tshisekedi called the rebels "an empty shell" used by Kigali to threaten the DRC.

“I could not fail to express myself on the tragedy that my country is experiencing,” he had said on Monday evening, ahead of events around business partnership, denouncing the “predatory and expansionist desires expressed by certain foreign powers.”

Felix Tshisekedi and Emmanuel Macron at L'Elysee Palace on 30 April 2024 in Paris. © Élysée

Rwanda's President Paul Kagame has long brushed off the allegations, but said he is sympathetic to the M23 and accused the DRC of itself supporting a Hutu militia hostile to Kigali.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced in recent fighting.

The UN estimated at the end of 2023 that nearly seven million people were displaced in the DR Congo, including 2.5 million in North Kivu province alone.

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) has also called on Presidents Macron and Tshisekedi to "place the search for peace, respect for the environment and human rights at the heart of this meeting," in a statement including its member organisations in the DRC and in France.

 (with newswires)