EU foreign ministers should \u201csupport\u201d the US Trump administration by matching its sanctions against the Rwandan army over its invasion of eastern DR Congo,\u00a0the latter\u2019s communications minister Patrick Muyaya told EUobserver on Tuesday (10 March).\u00a0<\/p>\n
The\u00a0US treasury department<\/a>\u00a0imposed the sanctions under its Global Magnitsky Act after the\u00a0Rwandan army and M23 captured the city of\u00a0Ulvira\u00a0in the South Kivu province on 10 December, just days after the Rwandan and Congolese presidents signed the US-brokered peace agreement in Washington.\u00a0<\/p>\n The entire Rwandan army has been sanctioned, and\u00a0accused of \u201cactively supporting, training, and fighting alongside the [M23],<\/a>\u201d a\u00a0charge\u00a0that it rejects.\u00a0<\/p>\n The EU following suit would be a major step, said Muyaya.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rwanda has hit back at the sanctions, and the demand by US treasury secretary\u00a0Scott Bessent\u00a0that it\u00a0order\u00a0\u201cthe immediate withdrawal of RDF troops, weapons, and equipment\u201d. The US demands are one-sided and \u201cmisrepresent the reality and distort the facts of the conflict\u201d, said a Rwandan government spokesperson last week.<\/p>\n The EU could move as early as next week.\u00a0DR Congo foreign minister Th\u00e9r\u00e8se\u00a0Kayikwamba\u00a0Wagner is in Brussels this week as part of a concerted push by Kinshasa to persuade EU foreign ministers to match the US sanctions at a foreign affairs council next Monday (16 March).\u00a0<\/p>\n The Trump administration \u201cdeserves much more support from the\u00a0European Union in order to put more pressure on president [Paul] Kagame,\u201d\u00a0Muyaya told EUobserver.\u00a0<\/p>\n Though the EU imposed sanctions on several Rwandan military officials<\/a>, a government minister and a gold refinery last March, Congolese ministers have been frustrated by its reluctance to move further. <\/p>\n France, Germany, Belgium<\/p>\n France, Belgium and Germany are among a group of EU countries pushing for tougher sanctions against Rwanda, though a decision at next Monday\u2019s meeting is unlikely.<\/p>\n Muyaya also accused Rwanda of showing \u201ca lack of political will\u201d to deliver on a peace agreement between the two countries that was signed in Washington last December.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Rwandan army and the M23 militia group have captured swathes of territory and the major cities in eastern DR Congo over the past several years. <\/p>\n The Rwandan government says that its military presence is to protect its own border from militia groups linked to the 1994 genocide against Rwanda\u2019s Tutsi population by the majority Hutu.\u00a0<\/p>\n As well as imposing sanctions, which would include travel bans and asset freezes, Kinshasa wants the EU to suspend payments to the Rwandan\u00a0army to finance a peacekeeping mission led by the\u00a0country in Cabo Delgado, a province in north-east Mozambique which is home to a multi-billion euro LNG project run by TotalEnergies<\/a>.\u00a0The EU has previously paid the Rwandan military for a similar mission in Central African Republic.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis army is not credible anymore, because you cannot support peacekeeping\u00a0mission\u00a0in Central Africa and\u00a0also\u00a0be responsible\u00a0for the\u00a0massacres\u00a0committed in\u00a0the\u00a0eastern part of DRC,\u201d\u00a0said Muyaya.\u00a0<\/p>\n