Rwanda pulls out of regional bloc over DR Congo row

Kigali accuses the central African organisation Eccas of pandering to the demands of Kinshasa.

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The country was supposed to take up the chairman role of the Economic Community of Central African States (Eccas), which rotates between its 11 members.

But it was prevented from doing so at a meeting on Saturday in Equatorial Guinea.

Announcing its decision to leave Eccas, Rwanda said its right to take up the "chairmanship… was deliberately ignored in order to impose the DRC's diktat".

As a result, it saw "no justification for remaining in an organisation whose current functioning runs counter to its founding principles and intended purpose".