The Rwandan government voiced deep concerns over the recent developments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, particularly its significant military build-up and abandonment of regional peace processes, the Rwandan Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The ministry expressed its worries about the DRC’s increasing its military operations actions in North Kivu, and "clearly aims to expel M23 and Congolese Tutsi civilians into neighboring countries."
The Rwandan government also accused Kinshasa of working in concert with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Rwandan ethnic militia directly linked to the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994.
"Taken together, these facts represent a serious threat to Rwanda's national security," the statement said.
In addition, the ministry accused the DRC leadership, including President Felix Tshisekedi of "declaring their intention to invade Rwanda and change its government by force."
Earlier last week, the DR Congo government accused Rwanda of dropping a bomb on a camp for displaced people in eastern DRC, seriously injuring eight people.
In addition, Kinshasa on Saturday blamed Rwanda for a drone attack that damaged a civilian plane at the airport in the strategic eastern city of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province.
Apart from that, in late December, Tshisekedi compared his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame to Adolf Hitler for pursuing "expansionist goals," and accused the neighboring country's government of trying to monopolize the wealth, especially mining, of the eastern DRC region.
There are many rebel groups operating in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The M23 (March 23), a group fighting for the interests of the Tutsi ethnic minority in the DRC, first rebelled against the government in 2012, but suffered a major military defeat in 2013 and was disbanded.
In July 2022, Angola hosted a summit after M23 fighters became active in eastern DRC. The DRC accused Rwanda of supporting the rebels, while Kigali denied links to the group. Both countries have accused each other of shelling border areas.
At the summit, DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame agreed to de-escalate relations between the two countries. According to the Congolese president's office, the roadmap calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities and the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of M23 fighters from their positions in the DRC.
The M23 rebels, however, said they did not consider themselves bound by the roadmap.