---
title: "The West is turning a blind eye to a rogue, illegal Rwanda"
description: "As the impact of this illiberal autocracy extends beyond Rwanda’s borders, its president knows he is a vital African chess piece in the global geopolitical circus."
type: "OpinionNewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "Opinionistas"
author: "Natale Labia"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/natale-labia/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2024-07-23-west-is-turning-a-blind-eye-to-a-rogue-illegal-rwanda/"
published: "2024-07-23T22:41:17"
updated: "2024-07-23T22:41:18"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 972
---

# The West is turning a blind eye to a rogue, illegal Rwanda

> As the impact of this illiberal autocracy extends beyond Rwanda’s borders, its president knows he is a vital African chess piece in the global geopolitical circus.

By Natale Labia · Published 24 July 2024, 00:41 SAST · Updated 24 July 2024, 00:41 SAST

## Content

Of all the elections in 2024, a candidate for least-surprising outcome is Rwanda. This month, in a result that will surprise precisely no one, strongman Paul Kagame secured five more years as president after taking more than 99% of the vote in an election that served to underscore his dominance over the east African nation.

There can be no clearer illustration of the [sham](https://www.ft.com/content/491cd50b-07fe-4969-ae5f-76d411d74144) that is Rwandan democracy. Two prominent opponents, Victoire Ingabire and Bernard Ntaganda, could not contest the presidential vote. Human rights groups have repeatedly said the Rwandan regime harasses and jails opponents and dissidents and that its agents have killed political opponents at home and abroad, something the Kagame government denies.

“Rwanda’s opposition continue to face severe restrictions to their right to freedom of association, as well as threats, arbitrary detention, prosecution on trumped-up charges, killings and enforced disappearances,” Amnesty International [wrote](https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr47/8275/2024/en/) recently.

#### **International implications of this rogue, illegal actor**

To his supporters, Kagame has brought development to Rwanda, a country of 13 million people, while creating a sense of identity from the aftermath of one of the most horrific genocides in history. However, claims of an economic miracle are disputed. Recent [investigations](https://www.ft.com/content/683047ac-b857-11e9-96bd-8e884d3ea203) reveal that official economic figures, controlled by his Rwandan Patriotic Front, are manipulated.

The [impact](https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/n24/118/80/pdf/n2411880.pdf?token=VjEvgyjoPTbmtcAX5E&fe=true) of this illiberal autocracy extends beyond Rwanda’s borders. Rwanda has become a rogue actor, illegally supporting the M23 rebels in eastern DRC. This support threatens to escalate the brutal, localised conflict into a regional crisis.

The fighting has drawn in several groups on one side: Congolese forces equipped with Chinese-made drones, UN peacekeepers, troops from Burundi, Malawi, South Africa and Tanzania, and European security contractors, including former members of the French Foreign Legion. Earlier this month, another South African soldier was killed in Beni, near Goma, raising the death toll for the South African Defence Force in this conflict to seven this year.

On the other hand, the M23 rebels are [reportedly](https://www.ft.com/content/495ee17e-aa2f-4674-b56f-a4dbae161d87) backed by Rwanda, according to sources such as Kinshasa, the UN, the US, the EU and the Catholic Church. Security contractors report that the rebels are supported with advanced weapons, including anti-aircraft missiles and GPS-guided mortars supplied by Rwanda’s military. “M23 and Kigali are joined at the hip,” said a senior foreign official involved in diplomatic efforts to end the fighting.

The rebel group is accused by the UN of sowing “terror” and forcibly recruiting child soldiers. Goma has been all but surrounded by the Rwandan-backed forces. If conditions in the sprawling capital of North Kivu province were already dire before the conflict, they are now deplorable. It is home to an estimated 2.7 million internally displaced refugees, largely living in tents. Cholera is rampant, and life has become a fight for survival.

Rwandan Brigadier General Ronald Rwivanga, spokesperson for the Rwanda Defence Force and quoted in the Financial Times, rejects the accusation of Rwandan involvement. “This is an internal Congolese matter,” he said. “Why would Rwanda be involved?”

That is not a difficult question to answer. The country is directly profiting from sowing strife and instability in its neighbours.

“Rwanda’s primary interest \[in the war\] is to continue to have its say in this geopolitical battlefield,” said Onesphore Sematumba, a Goma-based analyst with Crisis Group. “This is a dispute over the control of \[an\] area rich in economic influence. M23 and Rwanda agreed to reactivate this rebellion with the aim of taking the east of the country to exploit minerals for Rwanda’s profit.”

The DRC says it is losing an annual $1-billion in minerals stolen from its territory, which the UN says are “smuggled towards Rwanda”. M23 recently took control of the area around one of the world’s largest deposits of coltan, a vital component in smartphones and electric vehicles.

#### **Western hypocrisy**

The Rwandan president knows he is a vital African chess piece in the global geopolitical circus; China and Russia are both asserting themselves throughout the continent, particularly across the belt of the Sahel north of the Great Lakes. Kagame continues to enjoy cosy relations with most Western countries, including the US and the UK. Safe in this knowledge, he acts with impunity, destabilising the region to extract vast wealth from his neighbours.

President Felix Tshisekedi of the DRC has directly compared the conflict to Ukraine. “The international community stood up and mobilised support for Ukraine… we’re also being attacked by Rwanda, but there are no sanctions?”

To paraphrase Franklin Roosevelt on Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza, Washington knows that Kagame “is a son of bitch, but at least he’s our son of a bitch”.

#### **Veneer of respectability**

As with other Western-backed rogue actors across the world, Rwanda portrays a veneer of respectability to obscure the malevolent reality of its objectives. When the Premier League kicks off next month, fans at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium will notice an innocent-looking “[Visit Rwanda](https://www.arsenal.com/visit-rwanda)” message on the sleeves of their team’s jerseys, yet another crass attempt at geopolitical “sportswashing”. Visitors flock to Rwanda to stay at the many new luxury game lodges, where tourists now spend thousands of dollars to see mountain gorillas. Along with the looted coltan and gold from the eastern DRC, ecotourism is a valuable source of foreign currency for Kagame’s regime.

The last thing Africa needs is another rogue actor. Governments who remain acquiescent of Rwanda’s actions should not be surprised if their global geopolitical rivals get drawn into the conflict by an increasingly desperate Congo, further escalating the situation.

To embattled residents of the Great Lakes region, it must be clear that the so-called rules-based world order, as propagated by the West, only exists in name to the benefit of those who write the rules. As has been the case so many times in the past, the greatest losers will be those hapless and helpless residents of the tortured nation that is the DRC. **DM**