Rwandan President Paul Kagame said on Friday he was unsure whether a U.S.-brokered peace deal would hold with Democratic Republic of Congo and warned he would respond to any “tricks” from his neighbour.
The agreement signed last week calls for Rwandan troops to withdraw within 90 days from eastern Congo, where the United Nations says they are supporting M23 rebels who seized the region’s two largest cities earlier this year.
Rwanda denies helping M23 and says its forces are acting in self-defence against Congo’s army and ethnic Hutu militiamen linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, including from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).
Kagame told reporters in Kigali that Rwanda was committed to implementing the deal, but that it could fail if Congo did not live up to its promises to neutralise the FDLR.
“If the side that we are working with plays tricks and takes us back to the problem, then we deal with the problem like we have been dealing with it,” Kagame said.
He said he was grateful for the involvement of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration in mediation efforts.
“If it doesn’t work, they aren’t the ones to blame,” Kagame said.
There was no immediate response from Congo which has regularly accused Rwanda of being the aggressor.
Kagame’s remarks were his first in public since June 6. He was not seen attending events from then until June 24 and there was no activity on the presidency’s usually busy social media accounts during that time.
His absence led to speculation among Rwandan dissidents based outside the country about his health. David Himbara, a former Kagame adviser turned critic living in Canada, said repeatedly on social media that Kagame was ill.
Asked for a response, Kagame brushed off the reports. “Some of my personal health problems might originate from managing you people,” he said, to laughter.
“What is the problem? What would people want me to account for? That I am not human?” added the president who showed no signs of being unwell during the press conference.
Congo’s government and M23 said on Thursday they would send delegations back to Qatar for parallel talks aimed at ending the conflict.
The Trump administration has dangled the possibility of a separate investment deal that could unlock Western investment in regional supply chains for minerals such as tantalum, gold and copper as an incentive for all sides to make peace.
