“It’s not about forgetting the past, it’s about tolerance and moving forward,” the Rwandan president said during French President Macron’s recent visit to Rwanda. His desperate desire to destabilize the region seems at odds with his desire to move forward. Today that sounds unreliable.
France has always been a friend of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. President Emmanuel Macron also recalled that there was a good relationship between the two countries and that there was a reason France sent an ambassador.
The paradoxical position of the French to be friends with everyone in order to please anyone when their interests are not threatened by direct threats.
This position is no longer valid and the Congolese government wants France to crack down on abuses on Congolese soil. It is important to remember that the Paul Kagame regime is responsible for the unrest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and that the Congolese people are still determined to find a path to peace.
This ambivalence is not Macron’s idiosyncratic gesture, but an expression of French policy towards Africa. At the time, French President François Mitterrand was criticized for failing to stop the genocide and supporting the Hutu-led government. Also, more and more French are opposed to France’s toleration of Rwanda.
In recent months, the Congolese government has launched a vigorous diplomatic defiance against Rwanda on the international political arena. As Kagame became increasingly isolated, the Belgian government and French diplomats issued statements demanding that Rwanda end all support for the M23. Germany wants to end support for the M23 and lift broad sanctions on those responsible for the attack. Recently, France has strongly and openly criticized Rwanda’s support for the M23 terrorism movement.
All Congolese people want this tunnel of war with negative forces and enemies of the world to end.