Africa-Press – Rwanda. Violent protests have paralyzed parts of DRC’s Goma city as protestors demand for an immediate departure of alleged Rwanda National Police rumoured to be in the country. The Congolese army which is currently ruling this part of the country has vowed to arrest the protestors and bring them to justice.
During a joint Military and Police press briefing, the spokesperson for the military governor of the province of North Kivu, indicated that the incidents provoked by the demonstrators against a “the alleged presence of a Rwandan police” in Goma -the capital of the province of North Kivu, caused deaths and injuries among the police and the civilian population.
For his part, the spokesperson for the military governor of the province of North Kivu, Brig. Gen. Sylvain Ekenge Efomi Bomusa, clarified that there is no presence of Rwandan police in the city of Goma, nor on Congolese soil, in general. “There is no Rwandan police presence in the city of Goma, contrary to messages propagated into the public by agitators,” he said.
While qualifying as “crazy rumor, intoxication, manipulation of opinion around the agreement signed with the Rwandan police”, Gen. Ekenge called on the population and more particularly the youth, to dissociate themselves from “the agitators, members of the so-called citizen movements who are only sellers of illusions ”.
The demonstrators, it is said, barricaded early Monday morning in Goma, streets and avenues in various parts of the city. It took a deployment of police forces to restore order and traffic. For fear of side effects including possible looting, several trading houses, schools and even pharmacies did not open, but traffic returned to normal in the afternoon.
Rwanda National Police (RNP) and Congolese National Police (CNP) signed a memorandum of understanding on Monday, December 13, to formalize the cross-border bilateral cooperation in various pressing matters of policing.
The MoU binds the two Police institutions to join efforts against transnational organized crime and terrorism; smuggling and trafficking in narcotics and psychotropic substances as well as their precursors; currency counterfeiting and the proliferation of small arms and light weapons.
Other areas of partnership include expertise and intelligence sharing, conducting joint or simultaneous operations, fighting against cyber criminality, human trafficking, organ trafficking and document fraud.
“Our two countries are not only neighbours, but also brothers. Our region continues to experience a number of security challenges including Islamic jihadists, terrorism, drug trafficking, and smuggling among others, which requires us to establish strong cooperation and join efforts to combat organized, cross-border and transnational crimes threatening our region,” IGP Munyuza said.
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