Rwanda: Our troops did not cross into Congo
DR Congo is the world’s largest source of cobalt and Africa’s biggest miner of copper and tin.
RWANDA’S army denied its troops crossed into neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo in pursuit of a militia that’s staged at least two attacks on its territory in the past three weeks.
The spokesman for a joint operation against the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda rebels in Congo’s east, William Ndjike Kaiko, said Rwandan forces were on Congolese soil between Monday and Tuesday.
Rwandan deputy army spokesman Rene Ngendahimana, speaking by phone, denied soldiers had crossed the border.
Rwanda’s military previously said it repelled a Saturday attack by FDLR members who’d crossed from Congo. Some people were killed in that raid, the Rwandan newspaper Izuba Rirashe reported, citing Caritas Mukandasira, governor of North West region where it took place.
Congo is the world’s largest source of cobalt and Africa’s biggest miner of copper and tin. For two decades, it has struggled to defeat dozens of local and foreign militias in the east of the country.
In January, United Nations peacekeepers agreed again to work with the Congolese army to defeat the FDLR and dozens of other armed groups.
