Britain's decision to unfreeze half of its aid to Rwanda after the African state engaged in constructive peace talks faced criticism from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo and Human Rights Watch.

Rwanda recently had all their British aid cut, after a UN report accused them of fuelling the bloodshed in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), but the decision to partly restore it was made earlier this week.

The UK’s international development secretary, Andrew Mitchell, praised the country for constructively working towards resolving the crisis in the Great Lakes region, where 220,000 people have been displaced.

However, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch Africa division, Carina Tertsakian, noted that her research showd that the Rwandan military were still supporting the M23 rebel group, that were responsible for atrocities including summary executions in Congo.

Commenting on the UK’s decision to unfreeze aid, she said,

“for the UK government to resume funding despite any real evidence of any improvement is premature, to say the least. But perhaps not surprising considering the unconditional support towards Rwanda and the apparent policy of providing development assistance without much consideration of human rights by the outgoing international development secretary.”

The DCR government spokesman, Lambert Mende, also denounced the British decision as ‘dangerous’ and said the move would do nothing to help resolve problems in the area.

The UK is the first to unfreeze aid to Rwanda. Other countries, including Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands have continued to uphold the aid suspensions.