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THE MACABRE RECORD OF KAGAME: 30 YEARS IN POWER, 30 YEARS OF INSTABILITY, AND 10 MILLION DEATHS IN CONGO

THE MACABRE RECORD OF KAGAME: 30 YEARS IN POWER, 30 YEARS OF INSTABILITY, AND 10 MILLION DEATHS IN CONGO

Emerging from the abyss of the 1994 genocide, Paul Kagame’s regime has often presented itself as a « Rwandan phoenix. » At the head of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), Kagame claims to have stopped the carnage—which he himself provoked by shooting down the plane carrying Rwandan President Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira—imposing a superficial « national unity. »

But this heroic narrative masks a darker truth: since 1996, this power has been built on ruthless regional geocriminality, plundering the minerals of the Democratic Republic of Congo and sowing thirty years of instability to ensure its survival and hegemonic ambitions over Kinshasa. This is not an economic miracle, but geopolitical vampirism, where Rwandan prosperity sucks the blood of a dying neighbor due to decades of external aggression.

A concrete and quantified example? Between 2024 and 2025, Rwanda multiplied its coltan production by 213%, following the occupation of the Congolese Rubaya mine by RDF/M23 forces.Historically, the roots of this dependency are anchored in the immediate aftermath of the genocide. Millions of Hutu refugees fled to Zaire (future DRC).

Kagame, invoking a threat, launched the First Congo War in 1996, massacring thousands of Hutu refugees and overthrowing Mobutu with the help of Congolese rebels and other regional powers. This was followed by the Second War (1998-2003), a continental cataclysm that killed millions and turned eastern Congo into a lawless zone.

But behind the security rhetoric, the reality is economic: Rwanda, devoid of resources, siphons coltan, gold, and tantalum—these « blood minerals » essential to global smartphones—through proxies like the RCD, RCD-Goma, CNDP, or M23 and M23-AFC.Damning UN reports document this laundering: Congolese shipments transit through Kigali, inflating Rwanda’s GDP, funding infrastructure and the army, while condemning the DRC to deliberately perpetuated perpetual chaos.At the same time, the Congolese army is infiltrated, with the system of mixing and blending troops with rebels, mostly Tutsi, who remain loyal to Kagame.

Politically and economically, this strategy is a vital pillar: without Congolese instability, the regime collapses.By supporting rebels, Kagame maintains puppet control over Kinshasa, weakening the central state to secure mining areas.

This geocriminality—a mix of armed plunder and regional manipulation—is not incidental; it is the blood that irrigates the heart of Rwandan power.NGOs and the Congolese government denounce a voracious neocolonialism, causing millions of deaths over decades, while Kigali retorts with laughable pretexts of border negligence. But the facts speak for themselves: in 2011, Rwanda even returned stolen minerals, a tacit admission.

This visceral dependency explains Kagame’s longevity: in power since 1994, reelected in 2024 with Stalinist scores (over 99%), he transforms neighboring instability into an internal shield for his substantially mono-ethnic regime, repressing all dissent under the guise of « genocide denial. »

From a security standpoint, the vicious cycle is relentless: Hutu oppositions serve as an eternal pretext for incursions into the DRC, which in turn fuel violence, justifying more interventions. The UN points the finger at Rwandan support for M23, with troops deployed for offensives, not for peace or self-defense.

This imposed chaos is not an accident; it is a doctrine of survival, where the DRC becomes a sacrificed hinterland for Rwandan « security. »But in 2025, this model is cracking: the Trump administration, initially a mediator with the Washington Accords signed in December—a pact touted by Trump as the « end of the war »—sees red.Barely a week later, the USA openly accuses Rwanda of « fomenting war, » violating the agreement with blatant support for M23, which advances to Uvira. Marco Rubio thunders: a « clear violation » that threatens sanctions. What was once tolerated becomes unacceptable, even in the eyes of a pragmatic White House, underscoring Kagame’s growing isolation amid global backlash, including diplomatic suspensions with Belgium and a highly critical stance even from ally Britain.In this growing diplomatic isolation, it is no coincidence that Kagame has recently extended a hand to Russia, an opportunistic ally to cling to power.

Already in 2023, he defended Russia’s presence in Africa; in 2025, strengthened ties in the Central African Republic and bilateral summits aim to counter the West.

Kagame has ruled as an autocrat for decades, and this Moscow flirtation—evoked in analyses comparing the two regimes—would be a lifeline to perpetuate his grip.Domestically, this longevity rests on an insidious and dangerous political apartheid: a Tutsi minority dominates the levers of power, relegating the Hutu majority to systemic discrimination—biased jobs, education, justice. Reports and critics denounce this « de facto apartheid, » where any Hutu voice is crushed under accusations of divisionism, consolidating a police state where national unity is merely a veil over ethnic oppression, which spills over into numerous state assassinations of dissidents, even abroad.Thus, Kagame’s regime is not a historical accident, but a well-oiled geocriminal machine fueled by imposed Congolese chaos and internal apartheid.Its survival depends on this instability, but the cracks are widening: unacceptable to Trump, isolated on the world stage, Kagame courts Moscow for an uncertain reprieve.How long before this phoenix consumes its own wings in the flames of lies (ubwenge) and exposed state rapine?

The USA is no longer willing to maintain a balance in Central Africa based on military force attributed to Rwanda: more and more lucid analysts compare the war too far that Kagame has just launched as « an obscene gesture to Trump’s diplomacy, » which will also inevitably mark the end of Paul Kagame’s geocriminal regime in Rwanda.Uvira is already, evidently, his diplomatic and military Waterloo.

This, naturally, must not prevent or blind the power in place in Kinshasa, which must take its destiny into its own hands and face the national emergency, to assume its defense, its diplomacy, and the proactive defense of its territory, finally, 30 years after the tragic and deadly adventure of the AFDL, whose scars its people bear to this day.

As in the era of Leopold II’s brutal and racist colonialism (denounced by George Washington Williams and Mark Twain), the USA finds itself condemning, once again, the 10,000,000 Congolese victims—exactly as in the time of the « Congolese cut hands »—of Paul Kagame’s hegemonic ambitions.

So that this is the last time history stutters on a genocide, the Congolese must take their destiny into their own hands.

Eugène DIOMI NDONGALA,

Christian Democracy.