Yes, Rwanda Is the Aggressor in Congo

Rwanda is engaging in illegal cross-border aggression and arming a vicious militia.

Michael Rubin spouts some pro-Rwanda propaganda:

In effect, Rubio has confused victim and aggressor. In Africa, he has done the equivalent of siding with Hamas against Israel or Russia against Ukraine.

Rubin’s foreign policy analysis is usually bad, but this is just nonsense. Rwanda has consistently been the aggressor in Congo for decades, whether that takes the form of direct invasion, support for militias, or some combination of the two. The Trump administration’s response hasn’t been all that impressive, but on the basic question of identifying the government responsible for stoking the conflict they managed to come up with the right answer. Rwanda is engaging in illegal cross-border aggression and arming a vicious militia.

Jason Stearns and Kristof Titeca reminded us at the start of their Foreign Policy article in February that the “Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been invaded by Rwanda five times.” It takes an ideologue or a lobbyist to believe that Rwanda is the victim in these conflicts. Maybe that argument carried some weight during the first Congo war after the 1994 genocide, but today it is absurd.