Rwanda quits ECCAS amid tensions with DRC

It's the end of the road for Rwanda and ECCAS: Kigali announced its departure from the organisation meant to promote economic cooperation in Central Africa on Saturday, the same day as the latest ECCAS summit.

"Rwanda deplores the instrumentalisation of the Economic Community of Central African States by the DRC," began the statement published by the Rwandan government.

"This deviation has come to light once more today in the context of the 26th Summit in Malabo, where Rwanda's right to the rotational presidency, as laid down in article 6 of the treaty, was deliberately ignored to impose the diktat of the DRC," the statement read.

While Rwanda was set to take the rotational presidency of the organisation for the coming year during the summit on Saturday, officials from the DRC allegedly claimed that they would be unable to attend a summit taking place in Rwanda.

In light of the tensions between the DRC and Rwanda, the presidency was eventually conferred to Equatorial Guinea, which has already presided over the organisation for the past year.

Tensions between Rwanda and its neighbour DRC are still running high following months of military clashes between DRC forces and the Rwandan-backed M23 militia in eastern Congo.

ECCAS was up to now made up of eleven member states, including Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe and Chad.