Ambassador of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to Nigeria, Pascaline Gerengbo Yakivu has appealed to the international community to call to order militaries of countries neighbouring Congo for sponsoring terrorism in the East African country.
The envoy who spoke in Abuja at the weekend during the commemorating of the victims of genocide in Congo, lamented: “Everyday, peaceful citizens are forced to flee their homes to take refuge in the bush, far from their natural environment, lacking everything, dying of hunger and diseases caused by their wandering situation.
“They haven’t harmed anyone; they are just suffering because they are Congolese. All this in total indifference of other countries and the international community, despite their reputation as civilized nations.
“The armies of these neighbouring countries that continue to cause death and desolation to all those innocent and peaceful people are however known, and for almost three decades those foreign Armies notably Rwanda which supports the M23 Terrorist groups have been carrying out operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo by occupying large territories for spurious reasons, raping killing and pillaging our natural resources.”
She alleged that: “All the researches carried out both by our State Institutions and credible foreign organisations on the subject of the numerous deaths caused by Foreign Armies incursions and occupation attests that more than 10 million deaths were caused by this situation.”
She said: “Imagine what 10 million deaths represent. We have countries both here in Africa and other continents whose overall population does not exceed 10 million inhabitants.
“We are victims of our hospitality, everyone is aware of the unfortunate events that happened in the Great Lakes Region in April 1994, when the DRC opened its borders to welcome Rwandan Refugees.”
The envoy used the opportunity to call on the international community “to come and intervene and make sure that the country regain its peace and stability because what is happening now, is not a drama. It is not an adventure, it’s real. People are suffering, people are dying. So we want the international community to really put efforts together to tackle this menace”.
