Rwanda: You can’t dump me if I dump you first

A diplomatic row over the DRC war has escalated with Kigali suspending aid coming to it from Belgium.

Kiri Rupiah

Members of the M23 movement monitor Bukavu while guarding senior members of their group during a special cleaning exercise and public meeting following the takeover of the city’s Place de l'Independance on 20 February 2025. (Photo by Luis Tato/AFP)

Brussels has been unabashed in its criticism of Rwanda’s support for the M23 fighters who seized two cities in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. In response, Rwanda has killed a $99-million aid deal with Belgium.

Signed in January last year, the bilateral co-operation programme was supposed to run until 2029, with Belgium supporting Rwanda in agriculture, health, urbanisation and public finance management. But when M23 rebels seized the DRC border city of Goma, with Rwanda’s support, Belgium spearheaded a push to get the European Union to sanction Kigali by suspending an even bigger deal: a €900-million agreement for Rwanda’s mineral exports.

M23 is calling the shots

On Tuesday, the Rwandan foreign ministry accused Belgium – the former colonial power of both Rwanda and the DRC, of having taken sides in the conflict and trying to politicise development. “Rwanda will not be bullied or blackmailed into compromising national security,” read its statement suspending the bilateral deal.

On X, the deputy prime minister of Belgium, Maxime Prévot, implied the Rwandan government had jumped before it was pushed. “Following Rwanda’s violation of the territorial integrity of the DRC, we were in the process of reviewing our co-operation with a view to taking decisive measures in response to this situation.”

This week, the United States sanctioned Rwanda’s Minister of Regional Cooperation James Kabarebe for being the co-ordinator of Rwanda’s M23 support.

On the war in the DRC, Rwanda’s government has gone from years of insistent denial that it supports the M23 rebels to President Paul Kagame telling CNN earlier this month he didn’t know whether or not Rwanda troops were present there.

Tuesday’s statement went a touch further, justifying Rwanda’s hand in the situation by saying that all Kigali authorities want is a secure border. Rwanda’s border with the DRC is now entirely controlled by the M23 rebels, after their seizure of a second city: Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu.