Shameless Kagame is exploiting Western guilt to pursue his own imperialism
The president of Rwanda is the Putin of Africa: attacking and plundering a neighbouring country
High in the celestial heavens – or, more likely, somewhere hotter deep beneath our feet – the spirits of Robert Mugabe and other late tyrants of Africa whisper advice to their successors.
When you do something utterly outrageous, they say, always blame your old colonial power. Deflect the pressure onto them. Argue that by murdering other Africans you are waging a noble struggle against imperialism.
Yes, this is an old trick. And of course it's ludicrous; millions of Africans will not be fooled by it.
But gullible Westerners full of post-colonial guilt can still be duped into ignoring – and even excusing – the bloodshed and poverty caused by many African despots.
This week president Paul Kagame of Rwanda became the latest autocrat to follow this advice. On Monday he severed diplomatic relations with Belgium, the old colonial power, with a rhetorical flourish worthy of Mugabe.
"'Who are you by the way?" Mr Kagame asked Belgium. "Who put you in charge of us? Rwandans believe in God, but did God really put these people in charge of Rwanda?"
In fact the Belgians have not been in charge of Rwanda since independence in 1962 (when Mr Kagame was four). Why did he claim they were still running Rwanda in 2025?
The answer is that Mr Kagame has invaded his neighbour, the Democratic Republic of Congo, where his soldiers are joining forces with a rebel militia known as M23 to kill thousands, evict millions from their homes and pillage the mineral wealth of an impoverished nation.
The horrors that Mr Kagame has inflicted on Congo defy imagination. The east of this giant country – particularly the provinces of North and South Kivu – has already endured decades of ruinous conflict, reducing almost every inhabitant to destitution.
Of all the places where a leader might wage war, invading eastern Congo is just about the most morally repugnant decision that anyone could take.
Yet this is exactly what Mr Kagame has done: occupying swathes of his neighbour while sabotaging every effort to end the killing.
In December he was supposed to sign a peace agreement with his Congolese counterpart, Felix Tshisekedi, but Mr Kagame never turned up for the summit in Angola's capital Luanda.
Instead, he launched a new offensive which soon captured Goma, the biggest city in eastern Congo and capital of North Kivu. Rwandan forces then advanced southwards to seize Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu.
Between October 2024 and the fall of Goma in January, almost half a million Congolese were driven from their homes; since then another 850,000 have been displaced.
Eastern Congo has immense mineral wealth and Mr Kagame has taken the opportunity to grab the mines and plunder the country.
Note the bitter irony of this: he accuses Belgium of imperialism while he is himself waging an imperialist war in Congo.
And note, too, the parallels with Vladimir Putin: the invasion of a neighbour, the de facto annexation of its territory, the mass displacement of its people, and the murder of Rwandan opponents of the regime who live in foreign countries.
Mr Kagame is also capable of Putin-esque mendacity. He typically justifies his aggression by claiming to be hunting down the militias behind Rwanda's genocide in 1994. Yet look where his soldiers are deployed: they have occupied the mines instead of pursuing the last genocidaires.
Sometimes, though, Mr Kagame just tells straightforward lies. When a CNN journalist asked him whether Rwanda troops were in Congo, he replied: "I don't know", as if his army might have deserted en masse or attacked his neighbour by mistake.
Now Mr Kagame's last gambit is to claim that the eternal struggle against Belgian imperialism requires him to lay waste to Congo. Will anyone fall for it? Britain should take this opportunity to demonstrate that the old trick no longer works.
David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, has done what should have happened long ago and suspended British aid to Rwanda. He has allowed our diplomats in the United Nations to state the obvious: that Rwandan troops are in Congo and they should get out.
But even now, Britain remains reluctant to challenge the willingness of other African states to indulge Mr Kagame. The African members of the Security Council – Sierra Leone, Algeria and Somalia – have often combined to protect Rwanda from scrutiny.
Will Britain "listen" to the viewpoint of these nations or will we highlight the moral bankruptcy of their position?
In the end, the trick that Mugabe and his comrades whisper from beyond their graves only works if we allow it to work. For the sake of peace in Africa, it must never succeed again.
| ### "Be courteous to all, but intimate with few; and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence", George Washington. ### |
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