DRC President Tshisekedi compares Rwanda's Kagame to Hitler

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) President Felix Tshisekedi on Friday compared his Rwandan counterpart to Adolf Hitler during a speech on the campaign trail in the country's conflict-wracked east.

Eastern DRC has been plagued by decades of unabated violence by rebel groups, including the Tutsi-led M23 which has seized swathes of land since launching an offensive in late 2021.

Kinshasa, as well as several Western states including the United States and France, say the M23 is backed by Rwanda, though Kigali denies this claim.

Relative stability

"I'm going to address Rwandan President Paul Kagame and tell him this: since he wanted to behave like Adolf Hitler by having expansionist aims (in the DRC), I promise he will end up like Adolf Hitler," Tshisekedi told a cheering crowd at a rally in Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province.

While most of the country has returned to relative stability after two major wars in the 1990s and 2000s, militias and rebel groups roam much of eastern DRC, which borders Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.

"When I took power as president of this country, I proposed a plan to live in peace with our neighbours," Tshisekedi said.

"But the problem is that our neighbours have eyes bigger than their stomachs, and that's the case with my colleague" Kagame.

'Horrible neighbour'

Tshisekedi has previously described Rwanda as a "horrible neighbour" and accused it of wanting to monopolise the wealth, particularly mining, in Eastern DRC.

"But this time, (Kagame) has met a son of the country determined to protect his country against all kinds of foreign aggression," the Congolese leader said during his speech in Bukavu.

Tshisekedi, who took office in 2019 after a disputed election, is running for a second term and has pledged to improve the lives of the poor, fight corruption and pacify the conflict-torn east.

He is scheduled to visit Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu, this weekend. The election is scheduled for December 20.