Palestinians gather gathered to receive flour rations outside a warehouse of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
Mohammed Abed/AFP
- The Democratic Republic of the Congo says it has had no talks with Israel over housing Palestinian refugees.
- Thinly sourced reports suggested such talks had happened in secret.
- It is not impossible that those reports confused the Democratic Republic of the Congo with Congo-Brazzaville.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has denied secret talks with Israel to accept Palestinian refugees from Gaza – pushing speculation towards less forthcoming neighbouring Congo-Brazzaville
“Contrary to what is reported in some media, there has never been any form of negotiation, discussion, or initiative between our government and the Israeli government on the alleged reception of Palestinian migrants on Congolese soil,” DRC government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya said in a statement.
He was responding to a report first carried by The Times of Israel, which was syndicated and interpreted by various media outlets linking the DRC to such a deal.
“Congo will be willing to take in migrants, and we’re in talks with others,” that publication quoted “a senior source in the security cabinet” as saying.
Further reports did not have any confirmation or better sourcing.
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It seems possible that the “Congo” the Middle East publication was referring to is in fact the neighbouring Congo-Brazzaville, also known as the Republic of Congo.
Congo-Brazzaville has not yet commented on that speculation.
The DRC has a long history of dealings with Israel, dating back to the administration of Mobutu Sese Seko in what was then known as Zaire.
Israel played a significant role in the military, economic, and political survival of Mobutu’s first three decades in office.
Israel opened its embassy in the DRC soon after independence in 1960, but the Israeli embassy in Kinshasa was closed in 2003 because of conflict in the country.
Last year, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, DRC President Félix Tshisekedi told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the African country’s embassy in Israel would soon be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
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