Rwanda warns that it may withdraw its troops

Maputo, 16 Mar (AIM) – The Rwandan government has warned that it may withdraw its troops deployed in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado to fight against islamist terrorism, “if international funds are not secured to sustain the counter-insurgency mission.”

The Rwandan Forces were deployed to northern Mozambique in 2021 at the request of the Mozambican government to support the fight against terrorists operating in the region.

According to Rwandan government spokesperson, Yolande Makolo, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), the Rwandan military presence in Mozambique depends on “adequate and predictable” funding.

“Should the RDF (Rwanda Defence Force) Command assess that the work being done by Rwandan Security Forces in Cabo Delgado is not appreciated, they would be right to urge the government to end this bilateral counter-terrorism arrangement and pull out”, she said.

Rwanda’s Foreign Minister, Olivier Nduhungirehe, echoed those comments in a post on X, saying Kigali was “ready to leave Mozambique if our efforts and achievements are not appreciated.”

According to Nduhungirehe, “Rwanda invested heavily and lost soldiers to help ‌stabilize ⁠Cabo Delgado and restore normal life and a key liquefied natural gas project, and should not face criticism, be vilified or sanctioned by countries that benefit from this progress.”

“We didn’t pay hundreds of millions of dollars and our RDF soldiers didn’t pay the ultimate sacrifice to stabilize this region, allow internally displaced people to return home, children to go back to school, businesses to reopen, and mega investments in Liquefied Natural Gas to resume, just to see our valiant soldiers being constantly questioned, vilified, criticised, blamed or sanctioned by the very countries that greatly benefit from our intervention in Mozambique. Indeed, we are ready to leave Mozambique if our work and achievements are not appreciated”, he said.

Although he did not name the countries, the reference is clearly to the United States. Earlier this month, the US government imposed sanctions against the Rwandan Armed Forces and four named senior Rwandan officials as result of “direct operational support to the March 23 Movement (M23) and its affiliates in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).”

The M23 rebels are said to be proxies of the Rwandan government, although Rwanda has repeatedly denied this.

Rwanda has so far received about 20 million Euros (23 million US dollars at the current exchange rate) in EU support for the counter-insurgency mission in Mozambique, which Makolo said was “a fraction of the cost being ⁠borne by Kigali.” She said the effort had cost Rwanda at least 10 times that amount.

The Rwandan warnings come at a moment when the financial support from the European Peace Facility is due to expire in May “with no plans for renewal”, according to EU officials in Brussels, cited by Reuters.

The insurgency in Cabo Delgado, which erupted in 2017, brought construction of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, headed by the French company TotalEnergies, to a halt. But work by the Mozambican defence and security forces and their Rwandan allies, particularly in the key districts of Palma and Mocimboa da Praia, allowed TotalEnergies to lift the state of force majeure which it had declared in 2021.

In January of this year, the French energy ⁠company and the Mozambican government agreed to resume construction of the project.
(AIM)
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