Category: News

The operation, involving 70 rhinos sourced from South Africa and completed in two phases of 35 rhinos each, aims to strengthen Rwanda’s role in global rhino conservation and bolster the species’ population in secure, well-managed habitats.

The Rwanda Development Board (RDB) partnered with African Parks and the Munywana Conservancy, with funding from The Howard G. Buffett Foundation, to execute this ambitious project.

The rhinos were initially relocated within the country to the Munywana Conservancy to acclimate to conditions similar to Akagera. They were then transported 3,400 km by truck, plane, and road—a two-day journey per group involving a Boeing 747 flight from Durban to Kigali.

Veterinary teams monitored the animals throughout to ensure their well-being.

The translocation builds on the 2021 introduction of 30 white rhinos to Akagera, which has grown to 41 animals.

The addition of 70 more rhinos supports the Rhino Rewild Initiative’s goal to rewild over 2,000 southern white rhinos across Africa, creating viable populations to secure the species’ future and restore ecosystems.

Jean-Guy Afrika, CEO of RDB, described the move as a milestone for Rwanda’s conservation and sustainable tourism ambitions.

“This historic translocation reflects Rwanda’s growing contribution to global conservation efforts,” he said. “It strengthens our protected landscapes and enhances Rwanda’s appeal as a destination for conservation-based tourism.”

Peter Fearnhead, CEO of African Parks, emphasised the complexity of the operation and the critical role of partnerships.

“With the safe arrival of all 70 animals, they have a real opportunity to thrive,” he said. “The coming months of intensive monitoring will be crucial for their adaptation.”

The rhinos are now under close observation in Akagera to ensure their health and adjustment.

The decision was made during a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Dr. Édouard Ngirente at Urugwiro Village on Monday, June 9, 2025.

The expanded budget aims to finance strategic investments and development priorities under Rwanda’s National Strategy for Transformation (NST2) and Vision 2050.

The projects include the ongoing construction of the New Kigali International Airport in Bugesera, expansion of RwandAir, job creation initiatives, boosting agricultural productivity, industrialisation, access to clean water and electricity, decent housing, and improvements in healthcare and transportation systems.

In a briefing held last month, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning Yusuf Murangwa highlighted that the increase reflects the government’s focus on post-crisis recovery efforts, including those related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the May 2023 floods, and the Marburg virus outbreak.

The 2025/26 budget will be financed through a combination of domestic revenues and external resources.

The government projects to raise Frw 4.1 trillion locally—Frw 3.63 trillion from tax revenues and Frw 477.2 billion from other sources. External financing will include Frw 585.2 billion in grants and Frw 2.15 trillion in loans.

Recurrent spending is estimated at Frw 4.39 trillion, while Frw 2.64 trillion will go towards capital investments intended to drive long-term development.

The full budget is expected to be tabled before Parliament later this month for further scrutiny and approval.

Meanwhile, during the Monday meeting, the Cabinet also endorsed key education reforms aimed at improving learning outcomes in public and government-aided schools.

The reforms, spearheaded by the Ministry of Education, include the optimisation of instructional time within the double-shift system for lower primary learners. This is designed to ensure that all pupils receive consistent and adequate teaching hours, regardless of their shift.

Additionally, the government will introduce flexible learning pathways at upper levels, enabling students to choose between Mathematics & Sciences, Arts & Humanities, or Languages. These tracks will offer a mix of core and optional subjects to better align with learners’ strengths, interests, and career goals.

“These reforms are designed to create a more inclusive, equitable, and future-ready education system,” the Office of the Prime Minister said.

Nagy, who served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs during President Donald Trump’s first term from 2018 to 2021, said ECCAS was already a weak institution offering little beyond routine meetings.

“Rwanda leaving the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) is no great loss to the nation,” Nagy stated in a post on X.

“ECCAS is the least effective of Africa’s regional blocs, doing little more than having meetings. ECCAS will be worse off without Rwanda than vice versa,” he added.

Rwanda leaving The Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) is no great loss to the nation. ECCAS is the least effective of Africa's regional blocks doing little more than having meetings. ECCAS will be worse off without Rwanda than vice versa.https://t.co/qNUTHADFyf

— Tibor Nagy (@TiborPNagyJr) June 9, 2025

The seasoned diplomat, who previously served as ambassador to Guinea and Ethiopia, commented on the matter just days after Rwanda exited the 11-member regional bloc during the 26th Ordinary Summit held in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, on Saturday, June 7, 2025.

The decision followed what the government described as sustained hostility and manipulation by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), particularly efforts to block Rwanda from assuming the bloc’s rotating chairmanship, an act Kigali says violated the ECCAS Treaty.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Ambassador Olivier Nduhungirehe, accused the DRC of using ECCAS as a platform to legitimise its aggressive posture toward Rwanda while derailing regional peace efforts.

“It’s sad to see a community of 11 member states being manipulated by a single country,” Nduhungirehe told state broadcaster RBA on Sunday.

The minister pointed to ECCAS’s long-standing governance failures, including the lack of financial audits since 2015, poor leadership, and what he termed an erosion of credibility.

In a strongly worded statement while announcing the exit on Saturday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Rwanda’s rights under the ECCAS charter had been “deliberately ignored.”

The bloc bypassed the agreed-upon rotational system based on the French alphabetical order, choosing instead to extend Equatorial Guinea’s chairmanship, citing Rwanda’s alleged role in the eastern DRC conflict.

Rwanda has repeatedly rejected accusations of supporting the M23 rebel group, turning the spotlight instead on the DRC’s cooperation with the FDLR, a genocidal militia linked to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

Kigali has also condemned repeated cross-border shelling, including a deadly incident in January that left 16 people dead and over 160 injured.

On Monday, June 9, the Cabinet reaffirmed the decision to withdraw, stressing that participation in ECCAS was no longer tenable given the bloc’s failure to uphold its own principles of equality, respect, and good neighbourliness.

“The DRC continues to finance and support the FDLR, a UN-sanctioned genocidal militia, while ECCAS looks away,” the Cabinet said in a communiqué issued after its meeting chaired by Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente.

The Cabinet also cited President Félix Tshisekedi’s repeated threats to overthrow Rwanda’s government as further evidence of the DRC’s belligerence.

Despite its departure, Rwanda says it remains committed to regional peace and will continue participating in other economic communities, including the East African Community and COMESA. It also reaffirmed support for ongoing mediation initiatives led by the United States and Qatar, which aim to broker peace between Rwanda and the DRC.

The Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) issued the statement days after Intelligence Minister Esmaeil Khatib said Iran had acquired a “significant cache” of Israeli documents through intelligence operations.

According to the council, months of intelligence gathering had enabled Iran’s armed forces to identify high-value Israeli targets for potential retaliatory strikes, should Israel initiate military action against Iranian interests.

“This forms part of a broader strategic initiative aimed at countering disinformation by hostile actors and reinforcing Iran’s deterrent capabilities,” the SNSC said.

Tehran’s access to Israeli intelligence would allow it to swiftly target “concealed nuclear sites” in the event of an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear infrastructure, the council said, adding that the information also supports proportionate retaliation against attacks on Iran’s economic or military assets.

Israel is believed by many to possess nuclear weapons, though it has never officially confirmed or denied this, maintaining a longstanding policy of strategic ambiguity.

Destexhe’s findings, which draw on firsthand testimonies, indicate that Tshisekedi’s administration has provided the FDLR with arms, equipment, and funding, contributing to its expansion.

According to the former lawmaker, while the FDLR operates highly organised autonomous units that are described as more disciplined than the FARDC, it is also fully integrated into the Congolese military’s chain of command.

Among the accounts shared with Destexhe was that of a young man, forcibly recruited by the FDLR at age 12, who served for six years. He disclosed that starting in 2022, he received a monthly salary of $120 through the FARDC, highlighting the extent of coordination between the two forces.

Similarly, an FARDC captain responsible for securing the Rubaya mine described seamless collaboration, with joint operations, helicopter resupply missions, and shared command structures involving the FDLR, the Wazalendo militia, and the FARDC.

Destexhe noted that, even more concerning, after 30 years of on-the-ground cooperation, many FDLR gunmen have been integrated into the FARDC, including in command positions, because they are often seen as “more capable officers.”

The former senator questioned the international community’s response, noting that despite the FDLR’s designation as a terrorist group, global actors have yet to fully address the consequences of its integration into the FARDC.

Destexhe warned that dismantling the FDLR is an immense challenge, especially since it sustains support networks in Europe through organisations that present themselves as human rights NGOs.

“Eradicating the FDLR’s influence would require a complete restructuring of the FARDC,” he said, calling the task “near impossible” without comprehensive reforms.

The FDLR has been accused of spreading genocidal ideology and targeting Kinyarwanda-speaking communities in eastern DRC, where hundreds of thousands have been displaced, with many seeking refuge in Rwanda.

The group has been collaborating with other militia groups and the Congolese forces to fight the M23 group, whose members have taken up arms to protest what they describe as poor governance, marginalisation, and decades of persecution.

Rwanda – RDC : Les FDLR sont complètement intégrés dans les FARDC – ENGLISH BELOW

Au cours de mon séjour au Kivu, j'ai recueilli plusieurs témoignages sur les FDLR. Selon mes sources, leur effectif aurait doublé depuis qu’ils sont armés, équipés et financés par Félix Tshisekedi,… pic.twitter.com/5ZeTwPbUGI

— Alain Destexhe (@Destexhe) June 9, 2025

The ceremony took place on Thursday, June 5, 2025.

During the ceremony, President N’Guesso welcomed the new envoy and spoke warmly of the strong bilateral relations and friendship shared between Rwanda and Congo.

He noted that the implementation of cooperation agreements between the two countries is progressing well and praised President Paul Kagame’s role in advancing collaboration and solidarity among African Union member states.

After delivering the message from President Kagame, Ambassador Busabizwa expressed his delight in representing Rwanda in the Congo and pledged to continue strengthening cooperation and cordial relations between the two nations.

Amb. Busabizwa previously served as the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Youth and has also served in various leadership positions, including as Vice Mayor of Kigali City in charge of Economic Affairs.

Speaking in an interview with the Rwanda Broadcasting Agency (RBA) on Sunday, June 8, Nduhungirehe described ECCAS as one of the least effective regional economic communities in the African Union, citing its dysfunctional leadership and failure to conduct audits of member states’ funds for a decade.

The minister’s remarks follow Rwanda’s abrupt exit from ECCAS on Saturday, during the 26th Ordinary Summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.

Rwanda’s withdrawal was triggered by what it called a deliberate violation of its treaty-given right to assume the rotating chairmanship, a move orchestrated by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and supported by certain ECCAS members.

During the Sunday night interview, Nduhungirehe elaborated on the deeper issues plaguing ECCAS, emphasising its governance and financial mismanagement.

“ECCAS has been a dysfunctional regional economic community, one of the least effective of all regional economic communities of the African Union,” he stated.

“We have issues of integration, of infrastructure, and of governance. We have a president of the commission who doesn’t act together with other commissioners. We have issues of audits since 2015 and 2020; we have never had any audit of the use of our money—the money of member states.”

The issues, combined with broader governance failures, such as the organisation’s inability to adhere to its own treaty and the exclusion of Rwanda from key discussions, fueled Kigali’s decision to leave the 11-member bloc, established in 1983 to promote economic integration in Central Africa.

Nduhungirehe also pointed to a pattern of marginalisation within ECCAS, citing a 2023 incident when the DRC, as chair, prevented Rwanda from speaking at the 22nd Summit in Kinshasa.

Rwanda’s formal protest to the African Union went unanswered, further highlighting ECCAS’s governance shortcomings.

“There has been a general issue of effectiveness and governance in ECCAS,” Nduhungirehe said, noting that the DRC’s recent move to block Rwanda’s chairmanship was “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

The withdrawal marks a major shift in Central Africa’s diplomatic landscape, particularly amid ongoing tensions between Rwanda and the DRC over security issues in eastern Congo.

While Rwanda has exited ECCAS, Nduhungirehe emphasised that the country will continue to engage with other regional bodies, such as the East African Community (EAC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).

He also reaffirmed Rwanda’s commitment to ongoing peace processes, including negotiations mediated by the AU and talks in Doha and Washington, despite what he described as the DRC’s unprincipled actions.

“It’s sad and unfortunate to see a community of 11 member states being manipulated by a single country,” Nduhungirehe said, lamenting ECCAS’s failure to uphold its founding principles of regional integration and cooperation.

He expressed hope that other member states, including Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and São Tomé and Príncipe, would recognise the organisation’s flawed trajectory.

In a human rights report released on May 30, the rebel group revealed that the militias’ tactics endangered civilians and violated international humanitarian law, a reality it says was completely omitted from Amnesty International’s recent report that accuses AFC/M23 of widespread human rights abuses.

The rebel alliance denounced Amnesty’s findings as politically motivated and misleading, arguing that they distort the realities on the ground and fuel misinformation about the group’s role in eastern DRC.

Amnesty International’s report alleges that M23 forces were responsible for killing, torturing, and forcibly disappearing detainees, as well as subjecting prisoners to inhumane conditions in detention sites. M23 rejected the allegations, stating that its own report is based on field investigations, eyewitness accounts, and verifiable documentation.

According to the group, its operations in Goma and Bukavu aimed to neutralise infiltrators while minimising disruption to civilians. The report claims that rebel-led efforts led to reduced violence, disarmament of hostile groups, and the establishment of humanitarian corridors—positive developments AFC/M23 says are routinely ignored by international watchdogs.

The group also addressed claims surrounding the January 27 tragedy at Munzenze Prison, where 165 women reportedly died after a fire and mass escape. AFC/M23 maintains that it had not yet entered Goma at the time and accused Amnesty International of failing to verify the sequence of events before assigning blame.

“These incidents at Munzenze Prison happened before AFC/M23 got there,” Delion Kimbulungu, the Secretary of AFC/M23 clarified.

Furthermore, the rebels challenged widely circulated figures that 3,000 people died during the seizure of Goma. The rebel group said 874 bodies were found between February 2 and 13, and attributed the deaths to crossfire in combat zones, not systematic executions.

“These numbers were fabricated for political purposes,” Kimbulungu said.

AFC/M23 also criticised Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr. Denis Mukwege for his comments on France24, accusing the group of mass atrocities. The rebel alliance described his remarks as biased and aligned with the Kinshasa government’s narrative.

Some regional security analysts have continued to echo concerns about the imbalance in international reporting, accusing groups such as Amnesty International of a clear failure to investigate all parties equally.

In a post shared on X, Nduhungirehe described as “unbelievable and unacceptable” the DRC’s ongoing efforts to rally accusations and sanctions against Rwanda in various regional and international fora, even as both countries are engaged in US-facilitated peace negotiations.

“It’s unbelievable and unacceptable to note that… Rwanda and DRC are actively engaged, over the past month, into promising US-facilitated negotiations for a historic peace agreement, [yet] the DRC, nonetheless, is still whining around in all regional and international organisations accusing Rwanda for its own turpitudes,” he wrote.

The minister’s remarks came moments after Rwanda announced its exit from ECCAS, citing a pattern of exclusion and deliberate obstruction led by the DRC, particularly during the 26th Ordinary Summit held on June 7 in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.

According to Nduhungirehe, despite recent progress in diplomatic engagement—including a March 18 meeting between Presidents Paul Kagame and Félix Tshisekedi in Doha, and the signing of a Declaration of Principles between both countries in Washington on April 25—the DRC continues to undermine trust-building efforts by pursuing parallel campaigns against Rwanda.

“Rwanda is engaged in all current peace processes (AU/EAC-SADC, Washington and Doha) in good faith and with a sense of responsibility,” he stated, but warned that Kigali “will never accept the manipulation, by a reckless and hopeless DRC, of regional economic communities such as ECCAS.”

He further argued that ECCAS has no legitimate mandate to mediate the crisis in eastern DRC, a role already entrusted to the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), under the African Union’s designated mediator, President Faure Gnassingbé of Togo.

The ECCAS dispute centres on what Rwanda has described as a violation of its rights under the organisation’s founding treaty.

In a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Kigali denounced the bloc’s failure to grant it the rotating chairmanship from Equatorial Guinea, as provided for under Article 6 of the ECCAS Treaty.

Instead, DRC opposed this, an act Rwanda views as a politically motivated breach of protocol.

This latest fallout adds to already strained ties between Rwanda and the DRC, whose relationship has been marred by mistrust. While Kinshasa accuses Kigali of supporting the M23 rebel movement operating in eastern Congo, Rwanda has repeatedly rejected the claims and has instead called out the DRC for its continued collaboration with the FDLR, a militia group linked to the perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

With Rwanda now formally out of ECCAS, attention shifts back to ongoing diplomatic efforts in Washington, Doha, and under AU-mandated mediation. However, Minister Nduhungirehe’s remarks suggest that Kigali is growing increasingly impatient with what it sees as duplicity from its counterpart in Kinshasa.