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Germany stops new aid to Rwanda over Congo conflict
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 4, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 25, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
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Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 4, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 25, 2026
Germany halts aid to Rwanda over its alleged support for Congo's M23 rebels, urging Rwanda to withdraw support.
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)
Germany halted new development aid to Rwanda due to the country's involvement in the conflict in neighboring Congo, specifically its support for the M23 rebel group.
The last aid pledge from Germany to Rwanda was 93.6 million euros ($98 million) for the period from 2022 to 2024.
Rwanda's foreign ministry criticized Germany's decision as 'wrong and counterproductive,' arguing that Germany should understand the historical context of the region's instability.
The M23 group is a rebel faction that has captured significant territory and valuable mineral deposits in eastern Congo since January.
The ongoing conflict in Congo is rooted in the spillover effects of Rwanda's 1994 genocide and the struggle for control over the country's vast mineral resources.
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