Democratic Republic of the Congo: M23 Group

Lord Callanan Excerpts

Tuesday 25th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

Noble Lords will appreciate what I have reported before. Right from day one, we have been engaged with President Lourenço of Angola to ensure that there is a process to achieve long-lasting peace in the region. That is long overdue, because the internally displaced people are numerous and suffering hugely. These recent advances create an even worse situation.

On Friday I was pleased to talk to the Ministers in Dar es Salaam who were hosting the EAC-SADC summit, which produced a communiqué towards peace in the region and set out a very clear road map to achieve the withdrawal. Our concern is that the Rwandans have not fully complied with that, which is why we have made the announcement today of the measures we are taking, along with our allies, to ensure that they respond to that African-led peace process.

[Lord Callanan (Con)]

My Lords, the Minister will be aware that the UK has given more than £1 billion in development aid to Rwanda in recent years. As has been said, evidence is mounting that Rwandan troops are heavily involved in the fighting in DRC. Is it not increasingly difficult to justify this funding when the Rwandan Government themselves are spending so much time, energy and money intervening militarily in a sovereign neighbouring state?

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

The noble Lord’s previous Government reached an agreement to give substantially more money to Rwanda.

The important point here is that our focus for development assistance is on those most in need. The measures that we announced today—I was able to convey these to the Foreign Minister of Rwanda in Geneva this morning at the Human Rights Council—are as follows: we will cease high-level attendance at events hosted by the Government of Rwanda; we are freezing trade promotion activity with Rwanda; we are reviewing our existing trade infrastructure in facilitation projects; and we are pausing direct bilateral financial aid to the Government of Rwanda. We are excluding from this our support for the poorest and most vulnerable, which is not direct support; we are committed to that. We are also co-ordinating with partners on potential sanctions designations and suspending future defence training assistance to Rwanda. Our position is absolutely clear. We want to ensure that these measures achieve what they set out to do: to ensure that Rwanda commits to the peace process led by the African Union.