Rusesabagina accuses Kagame of plundering DR Congo’s minerals
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Desk Eco
Paul Rusesabagina accuses Rwandan President Paul Kagame of sending troops to eastern DR Congo to extract minerals. The former hotelier says Congolese minerals are exported through Rwanda, while Washington has sanctioned Rwanda’s Ministry of Defence and Zigama bank, according to ACTUALITE.CD.
Paul Rusesabagina, a Rwandan politician and human rights defender, has accused Rwandan President Paul Kagame of sending troops to eastern DR Congo to exploit Congolese minerals. “Kagame’s mission in Congo is minerals,” he said in an interview with ACTUALITE.CD on Thursday 29 October.
Paul Rusesabagina says that minerals exported by Rwanda largely come from DR Congo. He questioned whether Rwanda could produce the volumes it exports and accused Kigali of selling to the international community minerals “that Rwanda steals from Congo”.
The accusations follow sanctions imposed on 28 October by the US Department of the Treasury on Rwanda’s Ministry of Defence and Zigama, a Rwandan bank. Washington accuses them of supporting the deployment of Rwandan troops in eastern DR Congo and the M23, now called the National Revolutionary Front (FRN), as well as facilitating payments linked to arms and ammunition purchases.
The US Department of the Treasury says minerals extracted from territories controlled by the M23 are entering Rwandan supply chains. It considers Rwanda’s mining production to be lower than its officially reported export volumes since the start of the M23 rebellion, according to the US sanctions targeting Kigali.
