The hostilities between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo played out on American soil this week after security aides clashed in hotel lobby where Denise Nyakeru, DRC’s First Lady, was staying, leading to accusations of an assassination attempt.
Ms Nyakeru was among first ladies attending events on the invitation of their American counterpart, Melania Trump.
US authorities are yet to issue any statement regarding the incident.
Rwandan embassy in Washington said “an unarmed member of the security detail of a Rwandan VIP staying in a Washington DC hotel inadvertently encountered security agents of a DRC delegation in a hotel hallway accessible to all guests. Both delegations were staying at the same hotel.”
Rwanda accuses the DRC security agents of blocking a member of Rwandan security team access to hotel elevators, which were supposed to be used by both teams as residents of the hotel, leading to the scuffle.
“The Rwandan detail member was briefly restrained from accessing the elevator by the DRC security agents, which was inappropriate and wrong behaviour in a common area, but the matter was eventually resolved without further escalation,” read a statement from the Rwandan embassy in the US.
Rwanda further says that following this incident, the Rwandan party made a decision to change hotels, but were “harassed and filmed by unknown persons as they checked out and departed”.
Kigali and Kinshasa have seen their diplomatic relations hit a low due to the war in eastern DRC, where the M23 rebels, allegedly supported, by Rwanda hold swathes of territory.
Mediation efforts have been going on, with the US stepping in but still failing to realise significant ceasefire and withdrawal of M23 from territories it captured from the government.
The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control recently imposed sanctions on the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) and four of its senior officers.
The US says that RDF is actively supporting, training, and fighting alongside the M23, who have also been sanctioned by the US and United Nations for alleged human rights-abuses and mass displacement crisis in eastern Congo.
