The storming and ransacking of the Ugandan embassy in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo is a serious breach of bilateral and United Nations conventions on diplomatic relations, a senior government official said in Kampala on January 29, 2025.
Angry Congolese nationals marched on and broke into several diplomatic offices in Kinshasa on Tuesday, a day after M23 rebel fighters captured the key town of Goma in the east of the DR Congo, raising the stakes in a long-running political and armed dispute.
“We condemn in no uncertain terms the thuggery and terrorism by unknown individuals who attacked and destroyed property at our embassy,” the State Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Henry Oryem Okello, said in Kampala. “This is unacceptable. It is a clear breach of the bilateral agreement and the international conventions.”
Protesters ransacked the embassies of Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya and others in Kinshasa and attempted to set them on fire, accusing those countries of supporting or failing to stop the M23 rebels.
Videos circulated on social media showed protesters burning the Ugandan flag inside the embassy premises at 12 Avenue Q/Petit Pont, Commune de la Gombe in Kinshasa. Protesters could be seen in the videos inside the embassy building which, under international law, is Ugandan territory.
Mr Oryem said the embassy staff were safe but in hiding. “The situation in Kinshasa is very volatile,” he said. “It is very toxic. It is very difficult to tell the way forward now.”
Under the Vienna Conventions on Diplomatic Relations, 1961, named after the Austrian capital where they were drawn up, the responsibility to protect foreign diplomatic missions and diplomats is in the hands of the host country and government.
It was not immediately clear if the protesters had met any resistance as they approached the embassy buildings. The Ugandan embassy in Kinshasa is protected by a private security company.
A Ugandan diplomat at the embassy in Kinshasa told Daily Monitor that the protesters had issued notices of the raids on social media a day earlier, which allowed them to stay away from the building.
“I wasn’t at the embassy when the protests started. I am somewhere within Kinshasa, but I am safe,” the official said. For his safety, he asked not to be named.
The whereabouts of Ambassador Farid Kaliisa and his deputy, Twaha Matata, weren’t immediately clear. Both diplomats did not respond to telephone contacts. Other sources told this newspaper that some staff members in the targeted embassies had been spirited across the River Congo into neighbouring Congo Brazzaville.
Relations between Uganda and Congo have warmed in recent years allowing Kampala to build roads across the border to ease trade. Officials in Kinshasa also allowed the Uganda People’s Defence Forces to deploy inside DR Congo to hunt down militants from the Allied Democratic Front rebel group.
However, tensions have been rising in recent months on the back of unhelpful public statements from senior government officials, as well as growing antagonism between the rebel group and the Congolese government.
Uganda’s Chief of Defence Forces, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba has severally supported M23 rebels using his social media platform. He recently stated that his troops were going to fight what he called “white mercenaries” in Goma City and Sake in Eastern DRC.
A few days later, the M23 rebels carried out an offensive in Goma City attacking United Nations and Southern African Development Community (SADC) peacekeepers and Congolese forces.
In Parliament in Kampala on Tuesday, Kira Municipality MP Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda said reckless statements and earlier plunder of DRC resources by Ugandan military officials might have contributed to the violence.
“You know we have invested in roads linking us to eastern DRC, you also know that we are paying almost a trillion shillings to DRC because of stealing its gold,” he said.
“We have been paying money in the budget I am only requesting [that] you find pleasure in asking the Minister for Regional Corporation to update us on the investment,” he added.
Plunder in 1990s
Uganda and Rwanda have previously been accused of plundering minerals from the DRC during two wars fought in the country in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Uganda is currently paying war reparations worth $325m on the orders of the International Court of Justice.
A break in relations would have far-reaching consequences. DRC is Uganda’s biggest trading partner, with Kampala exporting goods and services worth Shs1.2 trillion in 2021. The blockade of the Bunagana border by the M23 rebels has suppressed a vital artery for this trade.
Fighting has also affected the construction of a multi-billion-shilling road project that would connect Uganda at Bunagana border to Goma City and Beni Town in DR Congo.
Mr Oryem said Ugandans operating in the DRC were warned a week ago to be cautious due to fighting and threats by demonstrators.
He said the capture of Goma City by M23 rebels and loss of lives in the DRC was regrettable, and it wouldn’t have happened if the DRC government had taken negotiation as a priority.
This is the second Uganda embassy to be attacked in two years. Last year, Kenyan protesters burnt down the Ugandan embassy in Nairobi, Kenya during protests against President William Ruto and his government’s economic policies.
