President Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo has said he is left with no option but building a wall fence on the long border with neighbouring Rwanda.
The relationship between Rwanda and the DRC has deteriorated as both countries blame each other for supporting armed groups that are a threat to their security.
He made the remarks during a Summit of the world’s three great forest basins on Saturday October 28 in Brazzaville bringing together counterparts, Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo Republic and Brazilian, Lula Da Silva.
Tshisekedi consistently blames Rwanda for the M23 rebellion which Kigali considers it an internal matter of DRC. The battle hardened M23 fighters currently control vast territories in the Eastern region of the mineral rich nation.
Kinshasa has also repeatedly rejected demand by M23 movement for dialogue, effectively paralysing the Nairobi peace process which should have seen the rebels laying down their arms at a former military base.
“I am sorry as President of the Democratic Republic of Congo when faced with this kind of thing, I am not tempted to build bridges but rather walls to protect our population,” he told the summit on Saturday, adding, “We cannot call each other brothers and stab each other in the back.”
Launching an appeal for peace between different African nations, the President of the Republic explained that it will necessarily be necessary to banish “hypocrisy” among Africans and to have the courage among Africans to “look each other in the eyec, to say that it is abnormal to call each other brothers and stab each other in the back, at the same time.
While welcoming this initiative of the three large forest massifs which between them bring together 80% of the global biodiversity necessary for climate regulation, Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi also highlighted the theft of the country’s natural resources by armed groups.
Development of investment programs
For Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi, this summit is a form of prelude to discussions on the climate issue at the big mess of COP 28 which will be held in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.
The objective of the summit, according to Tshisekedi, is in particular to “establish a synergy of actions and cooperation strategies to better preserve our forests, restore ecosystems and fight effectively against poverty with a view to well-being of our populations. And to achieve it, he insisted on the acceleration and intensification of more technical and scientific cooperation, with a view to strengthening the capacities of States in the fight against this phenomenon.”
As part of the new economic perspectives at the global level, States have been called upon to develop better structured investment programs aimed not only at the valorization of natural resources, but also at strengthening the resilience of socio-economic systems in the face of the climatic crisis.
“The DRC calls for the diversification of sources of climate financing, including the development of a fair and equitable carbon market, as a mechanism for sustainable management of both the three tropical forest basins and other forest areas around the world” , he said, while affirming that the strategic role played by his country in the fight against climate change “no longer needs to be demonstrated”.
With more than 62% of the Congo Basin’s forests and approximately 70% of its peatlands, more than 52% of Africa’s fresh water reserves, its mega biodiversity ranked 5th in the world, the DRC which has taken all the measure of its natural and historical responsibility intends to assume its natural environmental and climatic leadership, together with its peers from all basins.