Nagy, who served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs during President Donald Trump's first term from 2018 to 2021, said ECCAS was already a weak institution offering little beyond routine meetings.
'Rwanda leaving the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) is no great loss to the nation,' Nagy stated in a post on X.
'ECCAS is the least effective of Africa's regional blocs, doing little more than having meetings. ECCAS will be worse off without Rwanda than vice versa," he added.
Rwanda leaving The Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) is no great loss to the nation. ECCAS is the least effective of Africa's regional blocks doing little more than having meetings. ECCAS will be worse off without Rwanda than vice versa.https://t.co/qNUTHADFyf
â€" Tibor Nagy (@TiborPNagyJr) June 9, 2025
The seasoned diplomat, who previously served as ambassador to Guinea and Ethiopia, commented on the matter just days after Rwanda exited the 11-member regional bloc during the 26th Ordinary Summit held in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, on Saturday, June 7, 2025.
The decision followed what the government described as sustained hostility and manipulation by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), particularly efforts to block Rwanda from assuming the bloc's rotating chairmanship, an act Kigali says violated the ECCAS Treaty.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Ambassador Olivier Nduhungirehe, accused the DRC of using ECCAS as a platform to legitimise its aggressive posture toward Rwanda while derailing regional peace efforts.
'It's sad to see a community of 11 member states being manipulated by a single country,' Nduhungirehe told state broadcaster RBA on Sunday.
The minister pointed to ECCAS's long-standing governance failures, including the lack of financial audits since 2015, poor leadership, and what he termed an erosion of credibility.
In a strongly worded statement while announcing the exit on Saturday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Rwanda's rights under the ECCAS charter had been 'deliberately ignored.'
The bloc bypassed the agreed-upon rotational system based on the French alphabetical order, choosing instead to extend Equatorial Guinea's chairmanship, citing Rwanda's alleged role in the eastern DRC conflict.
Rwanda has repeatedly rejected accusations of supporting the M23 rebel group, turning the spotlight instead on the DRC's cooperation with the FDLR, a genocidal militia linked to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
Kigali has also condemned repeated cross-border shelling, including a deadly incident in January that left 16 people dead and over 160 injured.
On Monday, June 9, the Cabinet reaffirmed the decision to withdraw, stressing that participation in ECCAS was no longer tenable given the bloc's failure to uphold its own principles of equality, respect, and good neighbourliness.
'The DRC continues to finance and support the FDLR, a UN-sanctioned genocidal militia, while ECCAS looks away,' the Cabinet said in a communiqué issued after its meeting chaired by Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente.
The Cabinet also cited President Félix Tshisekedi's repeated threats to overthrow Rwanda's government as further evidence of the DRC's belligerence.
Despite its departure, Rwanda says it remains committed to regional peace and will continue participating in other economic communities, including the East African Community and COMESA. It also reaffirmed support for ongoing mediation initiatives led by the United States and Qatar, which aim to broker peace between Rwanda and the DRC.
Wycliffe Nyamasege
Source : https://en.igihe.com/news/article/no-great-loss-for-rwanda-former-us-diplomat-reacts-to-eccas-exit
