KIGALI, Rwanda –
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Rwanda, the last stop on his three-country tour of Africa, where he articulated Washington’s new strategy to engage with sub-Saharan African nations as “equal partners.” .
Blinken arrives in Rwanda at a particularly difficult time for Africa’s Great Lakes region, with the small central African nation at odds with large neighbor Congo over accusations that both governments support rebels who oppose each other.
In a meeting Thursday with Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Blinken is expected to discuss efforts to ease tensions. Rwanda rejects a new report by United Nations experts who say they have “strong evidence” that members of the Rwandan armed forces are conducting operations in eastern Congo in support of the M23 rebel group.
Blinken has said that reports of Rwandan support for M23 seemed “credible”. After meeting with authorities in Congo on Tuesday, he said the United States will support African-led efforts to end the fighting.
Rwandan authorities, in turn, accuse Congo of harboring ethnic Hutu fighters who played a role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide that killed ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus. For a long time there have been tensions between the countries. In the late 1990s, Rwanda twice sent its forces deep into Congo, joining forces with rebel leader Laurent Kabila to topple the country’s dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.
Both Rwanda and Congo deny the charges of backing rebel groups, and Rwandan authorities have dismissed the latest UN expert report as a move “to distract from real problems”. Rwanda also asserts that its security needs cannot be met as long as armed fugitives from the genocide continue to operate from inside Congolese territory.
A meeting between Kagame and Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi in Angola on July 6 produced a statement calling for a return to normal diplomatic relations, a cessation of hostilities, and the “immediate and unconditional withdrawal” of M23 from its positions in the east. of the Congo.
But the M23, made up mostly of ethnic Tutsis from Congo, continues to hold its positions near the Ugandan border, keeping the focus on Rwanda.
The chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee in a letter to Blinken last month called for a comprehensive review of US policy towards Rwanda and noted concern that Washington’s support for Rwanda, widely described by human rights groups as authoritarian and repressive, it is not in line with US values.
The State Department said Blinken in Rwanda will also raise democracy and human rights concerns, including transnational repression and limited space for the opposition.
Paul Rusesabagina, a US permanent resident who is jailed in Rwanda after his conviction last year on terrorism-related charges, is also on the agenda. Rusesabagina, who rose to fame in the movie “Hotel Rwanda” for sheltering ethnic Tutsis during the genocide, was awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom.
In a statement ahead of Blinken’s visit, the Rwandan government said it “looks forward to a robust exchange of views on governance and human rights, as has always been the case in the bilateral relationship between Rwanda and the United States.” He acknowledged that the talks would include the Rusesabagina situation.
Blinken also visited South Africa on this trip, where he outlined a strategy “based on the recognition that sub-Saharan Africa is a major geopolitical force.”