President Tshisekedi Slams Rwanda for Damaging DRC’s Virunga National Park

By Jean d’Amour Mugabo

President Felix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has once again accused Rwanda of waging war in the eastern of his country, consequently damaging the Africa’s richest biodiverse national park.

“The conservation of our biodiversity and our forests in Virunga Park is currently the subject of armed activism that is damaging and destroying this ecosystem. This was not decided in Washington, Paris, Brussels or London. It was decided in Africa, in Kigali to be precise. It is the work of an African brother,” Tshisekedi told the Three Basins climate summit in the Republic of Congo on Saturday.

Kinshasa has, on several occasions, accused Kigali of supporting the M23 rebel group, accusations that Kigali has always rejected, calling them a scapegoat of the DRC’s government for failing to address internal conflicts. The United Nations and western powers including the United States of America have also accused Rwanda of supporting M23.

Addressing the three-day summit convened in Brazzaville, President Tshisekedi called for effective collaboration between the three basins, which account for 80% of the world's tropical forests and balance the planet's carbon balance.

The summit aims to establish synergies and foster solidarity between Brazil, Indonesia and DRC, the three custodians of the world’s largest remaining reserves of forests, peat reserves, and biodiversity. The nations hope that speaking with a united voice at COP28 will amplify their collective demands of countries of the northern hemisphere, so that they follow through on their financial commitments to fight irreversible climate change before the world reaches a tipping point.

“Our forests are the last line of defence for a humanity faced with the ever-increasing risk of irreversible climate change,” President Tshisekedi told an audience of heads of state, official delegations, government representatives, international institutions, donors, financing organizations, and experts from across the world, recalling that one of the most precious reserves of biodiversity in the world, Virunga National Park in the East of DRC, was being damaged through the continued conflict in the east of DRC.

Virunga National Park is Africa's most biodiverse protected area, home to over a thousand species of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, as well as a third of the world's endangered mountain gorillas.

“This is to tell you that we must banish the hypocrisy that exists between us. We must banish scourges such as tribalism and hatred of others. And that's when we could talk about breaking down our barriers, removing customs tariffs, etc,” he added. However, he continued “We must have the courage to look each other in the eye, Africans to Africans. And tell ourselves that we cannot call each other brother and stab each other in the back at the same time.”

Rwanda and DRC have been at loggerheads since the resurgence of the M23 rebellion at the end of 2021, capturing the swathes of the North Kivu province which M23 still occupies presently. The area is home to riches of natural resources and the Virunga National Park.

The Democratic Republic of Congo calls on the international community to put in place diversified sources of climate funding, including the establishment of an equitable carbon market with a fair price per tonne of carbon sequestered, as a mechanism for the sustainable management and preservation of the world’s remaining tropical forest basins.

A final declaration signed by countries of the Three Basins of the Amazon, Congo, Borneo-Mekong, and Southeast Asia following discussions at Ministerial and technical level during the three-day summit will be presented at COP28, the United Nations 28th Climate Conference slated for November 30 - December 12, 2023 in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.