Rwanda said that it was withdrawn from a regional African African block after a diplomatic row on its involvement in the conflict in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The country was supposed to play the role of president of the Economic Community of the Central African States (ECCAS), which turns between its 11 members.
But he was prevented from doing so at a meeting on Saturday in Equatorial Guinea.
Announce his decision to leave ECCASRwanda said its right to take the “presidency … was deliberately ignored in order to impose the DIKTAT of the DRC”.
Consequently, he “sees no justification for staying in an organization whose current operation goes against its founding principles and its planned objectives”.
The row came as efforts to end the fights in the eastern Dr. Congo. After American mediation, Rwanda and Dr. Congo are working on a project peace plan which should be signed later this month.
According to a declaration from the Congolese presidencyThe leaders of the Summit ECCAS “recognized the aggression against the Democratic Republic of Congo by Rwanda and ordered the aggressive country to withdraw its troops from the Congolese soil”.
He added that until the dispute is resolved, it was decided that Equatorial Guinea would remain in the role of president “to the detriment of Rwanda”.
In a comment sentenced to RwandaThe Congolese government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said that “we cannot continually and voluntarily rape the principles underlying our regional institutions and claim to want to chair them”.
He added that ECCAS’s decision “should inspire other regional organizations to adopt a firmer position against Rwanda”.
Rwanda has been accused of supporting M23 rebels east of Dr. Congo. The group made major progress at the start of the year, taking the main regional cities of Goma and Bukavu.
The government of Dr Congo, as well as the United States and France, identified Rwanda as supporting M23.
Last year, a UN expert report said that up to 4,000 Rwandan soldiers were fighting alongside the rebels.
But Rwanda denied the accusations by saying rather than its troops had been deployed along its border to prevent the conflict that spreads over its territory.
Rwanda has already once, in 2007, which left ECCAS, whose mission is to promote cooperation and strengthen regional integration in Central Africa. He joined several years later.
Additional reports by Emery Makumeno
