Former enemies Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have resumed diplomatic relations and engaged in a joint military operation to establish peace and security in eastern DRC. This has led to the arrest of General Laurent Nkunda, leader of the Tutsi insurgency of the Congrès National pour la Défense du Peuple since 2004. Joint forces have also been fighting Rwandan Hutu rebels.

Amid the earlier instability in 2008, the European Union’s development commissioner, Louis Michel, repeatedly called for a relaunch of the Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries (ECGLC), set up in 1976 to promote regional economic cooperation and development, only to fall apart in 1994.


The methane gas in Lake Kivu is a resource shared by Rwanda and DRC, which already cooperate in hydropower generation at Ruzizi. A planned Ruzizi III plant could provide up to 145 MW to Rwanda, DRC and Burundi in the future.


Many hope the shared methane gas could further the regional goals of the ECGLC. “Rwanda and Congo are ultimately the same people,” says Henri Yav Mulang, chairman of the Congolese Chamber of Commerce in Kinshasa. “In these troubled times, economic cooperation can bring us together.” International experts remain to be convinced. “Promoting cooperation between Rwanda and the DRC in the extraction of methane from Lake Kivu could contribute to peace but will likely not make a big difference if other sources of conflict… are not dealt with,” says Professor James Putzel, director of the Crisis States Research Programme at the London School of Economics.

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