Rwanda’s Exit from ECCAS Can Impact 16-Member Grouping

June 13, 2025

Economic Community of Central African States

(3 Minutes Read)

According to Cameroonian economist Eugène Nyambal, what happened was that due to the conflict between the DRC and Rwanda, the DRC appealed to Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) to ask Rwanda to stop supporting rebels in eastern Congo. It turns out that the DRC’s position gained more sympathy from the bloc’s member countries.

As reported by www.trendsnafrica.com, on June 8, 2025, Rwanda announced its withdrawal from the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) after 16 years of membership. This decision, driven by internal political tensions within the regional bloc, highlights the structural difficulties of an organisation whose economic integration remains limited.

According to Cameroonian economist Eugène Nyambal, what happened was that due to the conflict between the DRC and Rwanda, the DRC appealed to ECCAS to ask Rwanda to stop supporting rebels in eastern Congo. It turns out that the DRC’s position gained more sympathy from the bloc’s member countries.

Rwanda, which had hoped to assume the rotating presidency, was ultimately refused, as the mandate of President Obiang Nguema was extended. This irritated Rwanda, which had already expressed concerns about ECCAS’s effectiveness.

Meanwhile, Rwanda criticised the bloc for weak performance in regional integration. It complains that ECCAS, compared to ECOWAS or SADC, is one of the regions where integration progresses the least. The CEMAC sub-bloc is better structured, but at the ECCAS level, the dynamism is insufficient, Rwanda complained.

Nyambal points to several factors that handicapped ECCAS. There is a problem of political will and institutional capacity. ECCAS struggles to generate joint projects, and some projects funded by donors have taken up to nine years to be implemented, although those were planned for three or four years.

Rwanda’s departure from the group will have consequences. It could complicate the use of the Dar-es-Salaam corridor, a part of the Rwandan supply chains. This can disrupt sectors such as air transport and telecommunications. More broadly, ECCAS, whose intra-regional trade accounts for barely 5% of African trade, sees its role questioned in building a dynamic regional market.