UN says Rwanda is fuelling conflict in DR Congo | WPN World People News

In a startling revelation, the United Nations has said it had evidence that a rebellion in the Democratic Republic of Congo is being supported militarily by the neighbouring Rwanda.

According to a confidential UN report obtained by the BBC, Rwandan has trained its citizens under the pretext of joining the army and prepared them for a fight in support of army mutineers in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

"The United Nations has conducted interviews with 11 combatants who abandoned their positions in the mountainous forests on the border between the DRC and Rwanda The report describes these deserters as Rwandan citizens recruited in Rwanda on the pretext of joining the national army, including a minor," the BBC said.

"They said they were recruited in a village called Mundede, that they received training in handling weapons and that they were sent to the DRC to join M23," Hiroute Guebre-Selassie, bureau chief of the UN mission in the DR Congo, told the BBC.

The Congo conflict broke out in April after a mutiny by some army officers.

But Rwanda's Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo dismissed the report as "categorical lies".

"The UN mission in DR Congo is lying; they have not verified anything; they are repeating claims and rumours that we, the Rwandan government, have heard over the last many weeks," Mushikiwabo told the BBC.

"What would Rwanda gain in creating instability around its own borders? It does not make sense."

The UN report also highlights that some of the mutiny leaders were former rebel Tutsi officers who had been linked to Rwanda, whose government is dominated by ethnic Tutsis.

They were incorporated into the Congolese army in 2009 as part of a peace agreement.

Source: The Africa News.Net