These NGOs are vehemently opposed to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed on February 19, 2024, between the European Union and Rwanda concerning critical raw materials. These organizations are calling on the European Union to terminate the aforementioned agreement, which, according to them, facilitates the European Union's omertà on the plundering of natural resources and the holocaust of Congolese populations by Rwanda. This stance by the EU, these organizations note, endorses the expansionist impulses of an aggressor state and grants it "a passport" to continue the fraudulent extraction of "minerals of tears and blood."

These NGOs "call on the European Union to immediately terminate the agreement of February 19, 2024, concluded with Rwanda to promote the development of sustainable and resilient value chains for raw materials, because the Rwandan subsoil is not abundant in critical and strategic minerals, but rather that of the Democratic Republic of Congo."

They urge the European Union to "stop, as the United States has, militarily supporting Rwanda and to no longer provide it with weapons or equipment, and to put it under a regime of restrictions concerning the acquisition of weapons of war, given its proven involvement, confirmed by all credible sources in the looting of the DRC's natural resources. To urgently impose severe sanctions against Rwanda, specifically targeting President Paul Kagame for his undeniable support of the M23 activism."

It is appropriate to note that this memorandum of understanding by the European Union has sparked the anger of Kinshasa. The Congolese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Christophe Lutundula, had summoned the EU ambassador in the DRC for clarifications on this agreement. The President of the Republic, Félix Tshisekedi, had promised, in a special press briefing, to use diplomatic and even judicial means if necessary to annul this "ignominy."

Dido Nsapu