Germany stops new aid to Rwanda over Congo conflict

BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany said on Tuesday it had halted new development aid to Rwanda and was reviewing its existing commitments in response to the African nation's role in the conflict in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

The German development ministry said Berlin had informed Rwanda in advance of the move and urged it to withdraw support for the M23 rebel group, which has made advances in eastern Congo.

Congo, U.N. experts and Western powers accuse Rwanda of backing the group. Rwanda denies this and says it is defending itself against ethnic Hutu-led militias bent on slaughtering Tutsis in Congo and threatening Rwanda.

Rwanda's foreign ministry called Germany's action "wrong and counterproductive".

"Countries like Germany that bear a historical responsibility for the recurring instability in this region should know better than to apply one-sided, coercive measures," Rwanda's foreign ministry said in a statement late on Tuesday.

The German ministry said Berlin last pledged aid of 93.6 million euros ($98 million) to Rwanda in October 2022 for the period 2022 to 2024.

The M23 group has captured swathes of eastern Congo and valuable mineral deposits since January.

The ongoing onslaught is the gravest escalation of a long-running conflict rooted in the spillover into Congo of Rwanda's 1994 genocide and the struggle for control of Congo's vast mineral resources.

($1 = 0.9508 euros)

(Reporting by Alexander Ratz and Andreas Rinke; additional reporting by George Obulutsa in Nairobi, writing by Matthias WilliamsEditing by Ludwig Burger and Andrew Heavens)