The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner, questioned the European Union’s partnership with Rwanda in the current escalation of violence in North Kivu, at an extraordinary meeting of the ‘EU-Africa’ delegation and the European Parliament’s Committee on Development (DEVE) on Wednesday 5 February.
“More than 150 tonnes of coltan are extracted illegally every month on Congolese soil, diverted by Rwanda and sold on international markets under a fraudulent label of ‘Rwandan minerals’. And all this under the cover of a flourishing partnership between the EU and Rwanda sealed by a memorandum of understanding on sustainable value chains”, the Congolese Minister told MEPs.
“We demand decisive and immediate measures by amending the memorandum of understanding. Europe cannot claim to promote ethical raw material trade when it allows supply to come from a country which is financing instability in the DRC”, added Ms Kayikwamba Wagner, calling on Europeans to be consistent.
While no decision has yet been taken – either by the European Commission or by the Council of the EU – on this memorandum of understanding signed in February 2024, several MEPs, on both the right and the left of the Chamber, called on Wednesday for a change of mind.
Towards a Parliament resolution? The Chair of Parliament’s EU-Africa delegation, Hilde Vautmans (Renew Europe, Belgian), has said that she is determined to have a debate and a resolution included on the agenda for the next plenary session of Parliament in Strasbourg, from 10 to 13 February.
“There seems to be an emerging agreement between the groups to include a debate on the conflict (...) so that we can have a statement that makes it clear to the Commission and the Member States that we expect action”, she said.
As for the EU Council, the ambassadors of the Member States to the EU (Coreper) agreed, on Tuesday 4 February, to add a discussion point on the situation in the DRC to the agenda of the Foreign Affairs Council meeting scheduled for Monday 24 February.
“People are dying like flies”. Speaking remotely from the DRC on Wednesday, Congolese doctor and activist Denis Mukwege expressed his outrage at the disastrous humanitarian situation in Goma.
“We’re no longer talking about a humanitarian crisis, it’s a crisis of our humanity”, he declared.
“People are dying like flies! More than 3,000 bodies have already been collected, but there are still more lying decomposing on the streets. What portrayal are we giving to our humanity?” added the winner of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize and the 2014 Sakharov Prize, highlighting the growing scale of sexual violence inflicted on the civilian population.
On Wednesday, a new UN report put the number of people killed in the recent clashes in Goma at 2,900. Images relayed on Tuesday by AFP showed multiple bodies in body bags, buried by Red Cross aid workers in a mass grave in Goma.
“The stories we hear from our compatriots and our international partners are appalling. This shows that Kigali was preparing an open-air carnage in Goma. This is indeed what happened”, Kayikwamba Wagner had reacted earlier in the day after a meeting with her Belgian counterpart, Maxime Prévot.
Belgium’s new Minister of Foreign Affairs underlined “the urgent need for the international community to mobilise and wake up to prevent the bloodbaths that are taking place in eastern Congo”.
Jean-Jacques Wondo released from prison. Belgian military expert Jean-Jacques Wondo, who had been sentenced to death by the Congolese courts for his alleged involvement in a coup attempt, finally returned to Belgium on Wednesday afternoon.
Last January, Parliament urged the Congolese authorities to free Mr Wondo and end the death penalty (see EUROPE 13564/21). The moratorium on capital punishment introduced in 2003 was suspended in March 2024 by Félix Tshisekedi’s government. (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)