`The sanctions decision comes ahead of peace talks between DRC and M23 rebels in Angola, due to start Tuesday.
“This is not a ‘Rwanda-bashing’ exercise as some are trying to depict it — but a listing in reaction to those violating international [humanitarian] law,” an EU diplomat said.
Still, also on Monday, Rwanda’s Foreign Affairs Ministry announced it had decided to sever diplomatic ties with Belgium and demanded that diplomats leave the country within 48 hours.
Belgium had sided with the Democratic Republic of Congo in the conflict and “continues to systematically mobilize against Rwanda in various forums, using lies and manipulation to create an unjustified hostile opinion towards Rwanda,” the ministry’s statement read, which also took aim at Belgium’s “pathetic attempts to maintain its neocolonial illusions.”
Belgium hit back with similar measures, with Belgian Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Prévot saying the country will declare Rwanda’s diplomats persona non grata and denounce government cooperation agreements. Rwanda’s move “is disproportionate and shows that when we disagree with Rwanda they prefer not to engage in dialogue,” Prévot said.
Even as EU ministers denounced the Rwanda Defense forces’ presence in DRC as a “violation of that country’s territorial integrity” and took aim at the “illegal extraction and trafficking of natural resources from eastern DRC, the EU has also been blamed for fueling the conflict.
