KIGALI, Rwanda — The Biden administration is wading into one of the most complicated conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa: escalating violence along the border between Congo and Rwanda that has echoed in the wars, genocide and rapes that stalked the region in recent decades.
Blinken held several rounds of talks with leaders from both countries. He urged restraint, diplomacy and respect for national sovereignty, but came away with little progress to report. But the administration was bitterly disappointed at the refusal of most African nations to support the U.
The Biden administration also hopes to find a better spirit of cooperation after what some African leaders felt was neglect — and even contempt — from the U. The initiative comes at an urgent time. More than armed militias are operating in an eastern swath of the Democratic Republic of Congo and in parts of western Rwanda , with military forces from each country reportedly involved in cross-border attacks.
Most alarming of the groups, according to U. Named for a March 23, , treaty, the militia had been largely inactive after military defeat by Congo in , but reemerged last year with widespread summary execution of civilians, including youths, human rights organizations say.
The United Nations recently concluded that Rwanda is clandestinely supporting M23, which Rwandan officials privately and pointedly do not deny. Like government leaders in Rwanda, most of the M23 rebels are ethnic Tutsis, who comprised the largest number of victims in the Rwanda genocide , when Hutu extremists slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The U. Secretary of State Antony J.
