Escalating tension between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda has reached fever pitch after Kinshasa declared Tuesday’s shooting at one of its fighter jets “an act of war”.
Kigali though has countered, saying the Sukhoi-25 had violated its airspace.
But the government of President Étienne Tshisekedi claims that the jet, which was flying at a low altitude at the time, was on its side of the border between Gisyeni in Rwanda and Goma in the DRC when it came under fire.
There are fears that if the situation isn’t defused it could disrupt economic activity across the region, affecting resource-related logistics south of the Lake Kivu area.
A statement released since the incident said: “The Government of the DRC strongly condemns and denounces the attack against one of its Sukhoi-25 aircraft by the Rwandan army.”
Apparently, the jet was in the process of landing at Goma International Airport when it was fired at. The statement said that the jet had landed without significant material damage.
Yesterday’s statement added: “This attack is in addition to the offensive launched this morning by the Rwandan army towards Kitchanga and immediately repelled by the Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo (FARDC).
“In the meantime, columns of Rwandan army soldiers have been observed coming from Rwanda to reinforce the positions in Kibumba and Bwito in anticipation of other criminal actions.”
According to the DRC, violence by militants belonging to the M23 rebel group, which Rwanda allegedly supports, has been a long-standing reason for instability in a region on the verge of all-out conflict.
Kinshasa emphasised that Rwanda’s latest supposed fomenting of fighting in the region was a flagrant violation of peace efforts.
The Kinshasa statement said: “The Government considers this umpteenth attack by Rwanda as a deliberate act of aggression which amounts to an act of war with the sole aim of sabotaging the ongoing efforts to implement the actions agreed upon in the framework of the Luanda and Nairobi processes for the restoration of peace in the East of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Great Lakes region.”
