If Rwanda wants war with neighboring Congo, "it will have war," a senior Congolese military official told thousands of eastern Congolese protesting the recent rebel takeover on Wednesday. The AP reports that.
General Sylvain Ekenge, a spokesman for the military governor of North Kivu province, made inflammatory comments to protesters in the town of Goma.
Rwanda does not like us. We are not afraid of it and we will fight it," Ekenge said. "If she wants war, she will have war," he said, adding, "No one is occupying an inch of our territory."
A spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo, known as MONUSCO, said Wednesday he could not confirm whether Rwandan or Ugandan forces helped the M23 rebel movement seize the key Congolese town of Bunagana earlier this week.
Rwanda and Uganda have denied for years that they support the M23 rebel movement. Many M23 fighters are Congolese ethnic Tutsis, and the Rwandan president is of Rwandan Tutsi descent. M23, in turn, accused Congolese officials of fomenting xenophobia.
Meanwhile, the Rwandan government accused Congolese forces of wounding several civilians in a shooting across the border.
M23 gained popularity about a decade ago when its fighters seized Goma, the largest city in eastern Congo along the border with Rwanda. The rebels were driven out of Goma, and after a peace agreement, many M23 fighters were integrated into Congo's national army.
But earlier this year, the rebels returned, launching an offensive against the Congolese army after claiming that the government had not fulfilled its decades-old promises.
On Wednesday, demonstrators in Goma called on the international community to intervene amid rising tensions.
The demonstration was peaceful, although police later used tear gas against some demonstrators who tried to march to the border post separating Congo from Rwanda.
Relations between Rwanda and Congo have been strained for decades. Rwanda claims Congo gave asylum to ethnic Hutas who committed the 1994 Rwandan genocide that killed at least 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutas. The two countries have long accused each other of supporting various rival armed groups.