For thirty years, the Democratic Republic of Congo has endured a systematic genocide that has claimed over six million lives. At the center of this crisis stands Rwandan President Paul Kagame, whose regime has orchestrated the looting of Congo’s vast mineral wealth while receiving billions in aid, military support, and diplomatic protection from the US, UK and EU.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – the world’s most resource-rich country – has faced one of the deadliest and most brutal genocides for the last thirty years. Most the world is unaware.
The suffering of the Congolese people has been misrepresented as the product of a “complex political situation”, or an “internal conflict”. This story, often pushed by corporate media, academics, and “experts” who serve as narrative gatekeepers, obscures the systematic plunder of the DRC’s resources – the engine of atrocities that have killed more than six million innocent lives, most of them children under the age of five.
The plunder is carried out in the interests of multinational corporations that rely on illegal invasions and occupation of Congolese mining towns and territories, and the mass displacement of the local population. This process is supported by western institutional funding, armaments and training, diplomatic cover, and political protection for regional and local hired guns.
Paul Kagame and his regime in Rwanda is a key player in this neocolonial, imperialist project. Together with Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Kagame has led the charge in creating and perpetuating the ongoing genocide. They have both served as mercenaries , looting resources to enrich themselves and their cronies – and to benefit foreign multinationals.
In order to reach the global market, cobalt, coltan, gold, and others are smuggled across into Rwanda and Uganda. Inside Rwanda and Uganda, the minerals are tagged with fraudulent certificates of origin and presented as originating from Rwanda. In spite of the fact that both countries export exponentially more of these minerals than the crumbs found in their own soil, these false certificates are accepted on the global market as legitimate. As a result, multinational corporations are able to claim the legitimacy of these minerals and continue to profits from them.
Indeed, compared to the scale of the plunder by global corporations, the theft of resources by African mercenaries is negligible. But for their efforts in supporting the foreign plunder of the DRC, Kagame and Museveni both enjoy the broad financial support from the World Bank, the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK), and the European Union (EU) – alongside military and diplomatic backing.
Kagame in particular has been hailed as an exemplary leader who pushed Rwanda to become one of the world’s fastest growing economies in the world. This claim almost always intentionally omits the fact that Rwanda’s economic growth has been boosted by billions of dollars’ worth of minerals stolen from Congo. Kagame is often seen at Davos. He was a regular speaker at the Clinton Global Initiative before it was shut down. Some of his closest allies include former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Former US President Bill Clinton, among others.
The initial invasion of Congo carried out under the pretext of pursuing genocide perpetrators who had fled across the Rwandan and Ugandam borders into the DRC. However, multiple reports produced by the United Nations (UN) and various independent organizations have revealed the true mission: to gain access to Congolese resources.
A 2001 UN report revealed the systematic looting of Congo’s resources by the invading and occupying armies. Almost ten years later, in 2010, the UN Mapping Exercise Report for Congo documented the systematic atrocities in the Congo between the years 1993 and 2003 as war crimes and crimes against humanity. The report added that Rwandan troops could be found guilty of genocide if taken to a competent court.
As with multiple UN reports accusing Rwanda of grave crimes against humanity in this ongoing genocide, the US mission to the UN blocked the release of this latter report. The report was only released after it was leaked to journalists. Prior to its release, then-UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon flew to Rwanda to re-assure Kagame that there would be no real consequences as a result of the revalations. At the time, Rwanda had threatened to withdraw its troops from UN Peacekeeping missions – another way Rwanda’s military is subsidized by Western institutions despite the regime’s atrocities in Congo.
The total number of people who were killed and displaced people as a result of this genocide exceeds the total population of Rwanda. Yet, multilateral and bilateral donors continue to shower the Rwandan regime with large sums of money and development aid that adds to its ill-gained proceeds from the plunder Congo’s resouces. Such donors are therefore directly complicit in the humanitarian crisis in which tens of thousands have been killed or displaced this year alone.
One of the more egregious examples of such complicity was demonstrated in 2022 when the EU gave €20 million to the Rwandan military – after issuing statements condemning Rwanda’s role in destabilizing the DRC. This has become all too familiar to the Congolese – just as it has to the Palestinians. Kagame’s backers routinely “condemn” his actions with words, while pumping his regime with money and shielding it from real scrutiny and accountability.
The mechanisms of impunity
The protection Kagame receives takes several distinct forms:
- Diplomatic and political endorsement: Kagame has benefited from a strong PR setup in Washington and London which promotes an image of him as a visionary leader, highlights his record of boosting economic growth, and muzzles any mention of his crimes in the DRC. He also benefits from support by individuals in major global political institutions. This creates a shield around him that calms Westerners’ anxieties and makes it difficult for Western politicians to call him out.
- Financial and military support: Rwanda depends heavily on foreign aid, especially from Western donors. The US and the UK have given billions of their own tax dollars to Rwanda over the last three decades. These funds subsidize Rwanda’s military adventures into Congo. Also, Rwanda has received military training and equipment from the US, while EU countries such as France and the EU itself have provided funding for Rwanda’s military. This support no doubt enhances Rwanda’s ability to continue committing genocide next door.
- Strategic silence and veto power: At the UN, the US and UK have continually blocked the release of reports on Rwanda’s genocide and war crimes in Congo – or watered them down before their release. Any discussion of sanctions on Rwanda at the UN level has consistently been met with resistance from two of Rwanda’s top donors and allies. Fifteen years since their release, the recommendations from the UN Mapping Exercise Report for Congo are yet to be implemented.
- The “useful ally” doctrine: Kagame is an instrument of empire. His regime in Rwanda serves as a mercenary willing to do the West’s bidding in the region and beyond. This includes contribution to peacekeeping missions, including in Haiti, Sudan and the Central African Republic; plundering missions on behalf of French oil interests in Mozambique; and of course access to cheap resources for Western companies in the Congo. In exchange for these mercenary services, Kagame receives protection for his crimes in Congo.
While the US, the UK and increasingly the EU remain the most visible players in this spectacle of plunder and inpunity for Kagame, other nations are complicit, too. Countries like Canada, Switzerland, and Australia, which make themselves out to be protectors of human rights or neutrality, also have many companies exploiting the Congo. They, too, are complicit in the catastrophe robbing millions of their lives, including through the use of child soldiers and child labor. As is Qatar, through which a large part of the smuggled and looted resources flows.
The ongoing genocide in Congo is not just a tragedy, or the outcome of internal conflict. It is part of a global system of imperial plunder. Kagame is a key player in this system.
Claude Gatebuke is a Rwandan genocide and Civil War survivor and a human rights activist. He is co-author of the book Survivors Uncensored 100+ testimonies from survivors of the Rwandan Genocide as well as pre-and post genocide Rwanda. He is also the Executive Director and Co-Founder of the African Great Lakes Action Network (AGLAN). His work focuses on justice, genocide, mass atrocities prevention and accountability.
