Kagame To U.S. Secretary Of State: 'Need DRC Ceasefire'

The Puppet Olympics are too close to call.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame spoke with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on 29 January, just days after Kenyan President William Ruto discussed the rapidly deteriorating crisis in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) with French President Emmanuel Macron.

The M23 rebel group’s attacks, which began in 2021, have escalated in recent weeks. Reports have emerged that the rebels have entered the North Kivu capital of Goma and seized control of the airport.

Kagame’s insistence that Rwanda does not back the rebel group is at odds with UN experts’ June 2024 report claiming between 3,000 and 4,000 Rwandan soldiers operate alongside the M23. Rwanda’s economic interests in the Congo also cast doubt on Kagame’s alleged desire to address the conflict’s root causes, with the M23, for instance, generating $300,000 a month after the capture of Rubaya.

Kagame thinks Rwanda and the US should deepen bilateral ties pegged on national interests. This, too, while not an admission of guilt, is worrying. While some sources accuse Rwanda of looting Congolese minerals, many accuse US tech giants of using these minerals to build smartphones, electric vehicles and other high-tech items. Last year, a US court refused to hold five tech companies—Google parent Alphabet, Apple, Dell Technologies, Microsoft and Tesla—accountable on child labour allegations on the technicality that they did not have anything more than an ‘ordinary buyer-seller transaction’ with suppliers in the DRC. Legal proceedings have now advanced in Europe against Apple. What mutual interests do Rwanda and the US share?

With all this in mind, how will African states working with US President Donald Trump’s second administration create prosperity and security for the region amidst these allegations? Please share your thoughts.

Sources

https://x.com/PaulKagame/status/1884376209527873784

https://www.kenyans.co.ke/news/108422-ruto-speaks-french-president-emmanuel-macron-over-drc-crisis

M23 – Goma

https://apnews.com/article/congo-goma-m23-rebels-residents-abac3115088f0c7591c69d495a3769ae

4,000 Rwandan troops among M23

https://cic.nyu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/The-Resurgence-of-the-M23-EN.pdf

https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/n24/118/80/pdf/n2411880.pdf

M23 economic interests in DRC

https://cic.nyu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/The-Resurgence-of-the-M23-EN.pdf

https://www.dw.com/en/congo-violence-m23-raw-materials/a-71417304

US tech giants and Congo minerals