DRC closes border with Rwanda following assassination of their soldier

  

NEWS– The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has closed its border with Rwanda after a Congolese soldier was shot dead while inside Rwandan territory.

The border closure is the latest escalation in a diplomatic crisis that has broken out between the two neighbouring countries.

Democratic Republic of Congo accuses Rwanda of supporting M23 rebels who launched a major offensive in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo last month.

Rwanda has vehemently denied Democratic Republic of allegations that it supports the M23 rebels, whose leadership hails from the same Tutsi ethnic group as Rwanda President Paul Kagame.

According to a statement from the office of South Kivu’s Governor, the Democratic Republic of Congo government ordered the closure of the border with Rwanda as of today 3pm local time (13:00 GMT).

This followed an incident where 2 Rwandan Police officers were injured when the Congolese soldier crossed the border and opened fire, before an officer on duty fired back and killed him 25 metres inside Rwanda.

The Democratic Republic of Congo government has said that it was investigating the incident if it’s true that the Congolese soldier was killed inside Rwanda or was dragged there after being killed.

The Joint Verification Mechanism which was created to monitor the East African border clashes is yet to issue a report over the incident.