Rwanda's President Paul Kagame has lashed out at President Cyril Ramaphosa, branding him a liar and accusing him of deliberate attacks and distorting a conversation they had on the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

BRING IT ON

Kagame said he held two conversations this week with Ramaphosa on the situation in Eastern DRC. "What has been said about these conversations in the media by South African officials and President Ramaphosa himself contains a lot of distortion, deliberate attacks and even lies. If words can change so much from a conversation to a public statement, it says a lot about how these very important issues are being managed." This comes after Ramaphosa shared a tweet updating the nation on the state of affairs in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where 13 SANDF soldiers were killed. In his tweet, Ramaphosa attributed the soldiers' deaths to an escalation involving the M23 rebel group and the Rwanda Defence Force, which he referred to as a militia.

LET'S BE CLEAR

Kagame responded to Ramaphosa's post and clarified a few things from his statement. A few important clarifications for the record, "The Rwanda Defence Force is an army, not a militia. SAMIDRC is not a peacekeeping force, and it has no place in this situation. It was authorised by SADC as a belligerent force engaging in offensive combat operations to help the DRC government fight against its people, working alongside genocidal armed groups like FDLR, which target Rwanda, while also threatening to take the war to Rwanda itself," he tweeted. Kagame said Ramaphosa never gave a warning of any kind unless it was delivered in his local language, which he said he did not understand. "He did ask for support to ensure the South African force has adequate electricity, food, and water, which we shall help communicate. President Ramaphosa confirmed to me that M23 did not kill the soldiers from South Africa; FARDC did. If South Africa wants to contribute to peaceful solutions, that is well and good, but South Africa is in no position to take on the role of a peacemaker or mediator. And if South Africa prefers confrontation, Rwanda will deal with the matter in that context any day," Kagame warned.