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.
The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) concluded there were “no reasonable grounds” to lay charges in the November 2024 shooting, which drew outrage from the Rwandan-Canadian community and sparked months of calls for accountability.
Kabera was shot multiple times on November 9, 2024, in the hallway of his Main Street West apartment building after police responded to reports of a man appearing to carry a handgun and behaving erratically.
According to the SIU report, Kabera was holding a replica firearm and advanced toward the officers before being shot. He was hit by eight bullets and died in hospital hours later.
“The object in the complainant’s possession was not an actual firearm, although it did give the appearance of being a genuine semi-automatic pistol,” said SIU Director Joseph Martino.
“The officers reasonably believed their lives, and those of nearby residents, were in danger,” he added.
The decision to clear the officers has left Kabera’s grieving family and members of the Rwandan diaspora dismayed.
In a statement released through their legal counsel, Falconers LLP, the family expressed their disappointment: “Erixon was loved by many and is deeply missed by his family, friends, and his community both in Canada and in Rwanda. We are disappointed with the findings of the investigation and are considering our legal options.”
Kabera, who worked as a Resource Officer with the Canada Revenue Agency and held leadership roles within the Rwandan community, including serving as Vice President of the Rwandan Community Abroad in Toronto, was remembered as a gentle and dedicated man who championed youth empowerment and cultural healing.
His brother, Parfait Karekezi, described him as a confidant, mentor, and friend. “Erixon was everything to me,” he said in an earlier interview. “I don’t even know how I’m going to live with this.”
The SIU report said police fired as many as 24 rounds after Kabera exited his apartment holding the replica gun at waist level. One officer also deployed a Taser. During the altercation, one officer was wounded in the head by a bullet fired mistakenly by the other officer.
While the SIU acknowledged the officers’ mistaken belief that they were under fire, the family has long questioned whether the police response was proportional and why alternative de-escalation measures weren’t used.
“The initial narrative presented to the public was both misleading and damaging,” the family stated in November, referring to a police update that initially suggested an exchange of gunfire. The SIU later corrected that, confirming only police discharged weapons.
In the over 200 days it took to complete the investigation, community leaders, including Alain Patrick Ndengera, Chairperson of the Rwandan Community in Canada, called for transparency and independent oversight.
“If any police officers are found to have acted wrongly, they should face the courts,” Ndengera said.
The Hamilton Police Service acknowledged the “profound impact” the shooting has had and offered to meet with Kabera’s family and Rwandan community leaders “when the community is ready.”
But for many, the conclusion of the investigation offers little closure.
“They killed him like a dog,” Kabera’s brother Yves Ikobe said in a past interview, recounting bullet holes left in the apartment wall and the trauma his family has endured.
In a strongly worded statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Rwanda accused the DRC, supported by certain ECCAS member states, of instrumentalising the regional bloc for its own political agenda. The move, according to Rwanda, became evident during the 26th Ordinary Summit held on Saturday in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.
Rwanda says that during the summit, its rightful turn to assume the rotating chairmanship of the organisation, as stipulated under Article 6 of the ECCAS Treaty, was deliberately bypassed.
Kigali described the development as a continuation of a pattern of exclusion and disregard for the rules governing the community.
“The distortion of the organisation’s purpose was once again evident… where Rwanda’s right to assume the rotating Chairmanship… was deliberately ignored in order to impose the DRC’s diktat,” the statement read.
This is not the first time Rwanda has raised concerns over its treatment within ECCAS. The government referenced a letter previously addressed to the Chairperson of the African Union in which it protested its “illegal exclusion” from the 22nd Summit held in Kinshasa in 2023, under DRC’s presidency. The letter, Rwanda said, went unanswered and no corrective action was taken by the community.
Citing a consistent violation of its rights under ECCAS’s constitutive texts and a lack of institutional accountability, Rwanda concluded there is “no justification for remaining in an organisation whose current functioning runs counter to its founding principles and intended purpose.”
Established in 1983 and headquartered in Gabon, ECCAS brings together 11 countries: Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Rwanda, and São Tomé and Príncipe.
Rwanda’s withdrawal marks a major shift in the region’s diplomatic landscape, particularly at a time when relations between Rwanda and the DRC remain tense due to broader geopolitical and security concerns in the Great Lakes region. While the M23 rebel movement continues to tighten its grip in North and South Kivu provinces of eastern DRC, Rwanda has repeatedly raised concerns over the Congolese government’s collaborations with FDLR, a group formed by the remnants of the perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
Kigali maintains that the Congolese army’s continued engagement with the FDLR not only undermines regional peace efforts but also contravenes multiple agreements aimed at dismantling genocidal forces operating in the region. Rwanda views this alliance as an existential threat to its national security and stability.
Kinshasa, on the other hand, continues to accuse Rwanda of supporting the M23 rebel group’s offensives. Kigali has repeatedly dismissed the allegations, insisting that they serve to deflect attention from the real issue, which is the DRC’s failure to address the presence of armed groups within its territory.
Building on the achievements of the first phase, the current phase will continue supporting 299 women from the initial cohort and introduce 300 new participants, bringing the total number of direct beneficiaries to 599.
The initiative, which targets communities in Mushubati and Gihango sectors, will benefit more than 2,800 individuals in total, with an investment of USD 1,773,841 (equivalent to approximately Frw 2.55 billion).
This project represents the second phase of KOICA’s broader UPG – Kira Wigire program, implemented by World Vision Rwanda to empower vulnerable communities in Rutsiro. The first phase ran from 2021 to 2023, focusing on socio-economic development and self-reliance.
The project will provide training through programs like “Hinduka Wigire” and “Kora Wigire”, alongside capacity building in agriculture, livestock farming, savings and loan group formation, and market and financial institution linkages.
One of the beneficiaries from the first phase, Vestine Munezero from Congo Nil Cell in Gihango Sector, shared her journey of transformation.
She said, “I used to live in a house made of unplastered bricks that made me feel ashamed, and my husband had abandoned me. Since we were organized into savings groups, I’ve renovated my house, bought chickens, goats, and rabbits, and I’m now able to afford school fees for my children. I’ve achieved all this in just three years through this project.”
Pauline Okumu, National Director of World Vision Rwanda, praised the partnership with local leaders and KOICA, stating that the initiative aligns with national development goals.
She highlighted how the project complements government planning, particularly by empowering citizens through savings groups and income-generating activities.
Kim Kwonho, Deputy Country Director of KOICA Rwanda, echoed these sentiments. He emphasized that the first phase had brought significant improvements in nutrition, economic resilience, and overall well-being among women-headed households.
In the second phase, KOICA views the 599 women not just as beneficiaries, but as entrepreneurs capable of driving meaningful change in Rwanda.
Emmanuel Uwizeyimana, Vice Mayor for Economic Development in Rutsiro, also commended KOICA and World Vision, noting the project’s role in expanding livelihoods.
“This is a great project that has helped our citizens lift themselves out of poverty. As residents of Rutsiro, we consider this project our own because over the past three years, we have witnessed remarkable improvements in the livelihoods of our community. We encourage beneficiaries to continue working hard to achieve even greater results and to target international markets with their products,” he noted.
Impact data from the first phase shows remarkable progress. Between 2021 and 2023, the proportion of households eating two meals a day rose from 35% to 72%, and those consuming a balanced diet increased from 6.7% to 57%.
Community based health insurance coverage improved from 83.6% to 97%, while households saving at least Frw 5,000 per month jumped from 3% to 47%, with some saving up to Frw 44,000 monthly.
Furthermore, contributions to Rwanda’s national long-term savings scheme, Ejo Heza, rose from 0% to 69.5% among beneficiaries, demonstrating the project’s effectiveness in promoting financial security and self-reliance.
In the phone talks initiated by U.S. President Donald Trump, Xi said that recalibrating the direction of the giant ship of China-U.S. relations requires the two sides to take the helm and set the right course, adding that it is particularly important to steer clear of the various disturbances and disruptions.
Noting that at the suggestion of the U.S. side, the two countries’ lead officials recently held an economic and trade meeting in Geneva, Xi said it marked an important step forward in resolving the relevant issues through dialogue and consultation, and was welcomed by both societies and the international community.
The two sides need to make good use of the economic and trade consultation mechanism already in place, and seek win-win results in the spirit of equality and respect for each other’s concerns, he said, adding that the Chinese side is sincere about this, and at the same time has its principles.
The Chinese, Xi said, always honour and deliver what has been promised, urging both sides to make good on the agreement reached in Geneva. In fact, China has been seriously and earnestly executing the agreement, Xi added.
The U.S. side should acknowledge the progress already made, and remove the negative measures taken against China, he said.
The two sides should enhance communication in such fields as foreign affairs, economy and trade, military, and law enforcement to build consensus, clear up misunderstandings, and strengthen cooperation, Xi added.
Xi emphasised that the United States must handle the Taiwan question with prudence, so that the fringe separatists bent on “Taiwan independence” will not be able to drag China and the United States into the dangerous terrain of confrontation and even conflict.
Trump said that he has great respect for Xi, and the U.S.-China relationship is very important.
The United States wants the Chinese economy to do very well, and the United States and China working together can get a lot of great things done, he said.
Trump said the United States will honour the one-China policy.
The meeting in Geneva was very successful and produced a good deal, he said, adding that the United States will work with China to execute the deal.
The United States loves to have Chinese students coming to study in America, Trump said.
Xi welcomed Trump to visit China again, for which Trump expressed heartfelt appreciation.
The two presidents agreed that their teams should continue implementing the Geneva agreement and hold another round of meeting as soon as possible.
The draft, introduced after months of mediation in Doha, was intended to build momentum toward ending the years-long conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. But according to an AFC/M23 representative who spoke to Reuters, the proposal is “not recent and has not been updated for over a month.”
The source further indicated that the proposal “takes more into account Kinshasa’s expectations” than the rebels’ own positions.
The talks, mediated by Qatar with backing from Washington and African leaders, have seen limited visible progress.
Some delegates from both camps have reportedly left Doha for consultations with their leadership, further casting doubt on the immediate trajectory of the process.
While one source briefed on the negotiations suggested the discussions had entered a “deeper phase,” with both parties engaging on the root causes of the conflict, voices within the AFC/M23 delegation remain sceptical.
Qatar moved to mediate the conflict between the rebels and President Félix Tshisekedi’s administration following the capture of large swathes of eastern DRC, including the cities of Bukavu and Goma.
The conflict has been ongoing for years. The rebels accuse the Congolese administration of poor governance, persecution, and the marginalisation of Kinyarwanda-speaking communities in the east.
While diplomatic ties were formally established in 1971, it was in 1995, following then Vice President Paul Kagame’s first official visit to China, that the relationship became more active across trade, political and investment fronts.
“It has been an exciting journey and we have seen a lot of results in many spheres of national life,” said Rwanda’s Ambassador to China, James Kimonyo, in a recent exclusive interview with IGIHE.
“Thanks to the excellent relations between Rwanda and China, we’ve moved from engagement to action,” he added.
That action is increasingly evident in the area of trade. In 2019, Rwanda was exporting only about $35 million worth of goods to China. By 2024, that number had jumped to nearly $160 million, an increase of over 350 percent in just five years.
The range of Rwandan products entering China has also diversified, from coffee and tea to chilli and other non-resource goods, all benefiting from China’s zero-tariff policy for least developed countries. China, meanwhile, continues to export close to $500 million worth of products to Rwanda annually, underscoring a growing but still imbalanced trade relationship.
But the real shift, according to Ambassador Kimonyo, is in direct investment. Between November 2023 and May 2024, more than 26 Chinese companies visited Rwanda, many of them returning with concrete investment proposals.
“The quick move by the companies is an indication that they are already weighing and they are so excited about the investment opportunities that Rwanda is presenting,” Kimonyo said.
He confirmed that China was the leading contributor to foreign direct investment in Rwanda last year, ahead of India and the United States.
“This all begins with what our government has done in terms of creating a very conducive, attractive environment for investment,” he said.
“The Chinese are very conscious, very aware and very excited, sometimes skeptical at first but once they see what’s on the ground, the interest becomes real.”
The surge in investor confidence aligns closely with China’s own evolving policy direction. During its recently concluded Two Sessions political meetings, an annual gathering similar in function to Rwanda’s Umushyikirano, China placed new emphasis on what it calls “high-quality development” and “new forces of production.” These themes center around environmentally sustainable growth powered by innovation and advanced technology.
“As much as China’s transformation has moved very fast, they want to make sure it does not come at the expense of the environment,” said Kimonyo. “So whether it is agriculture, it has to be climate-smart agriculture. If it is construction, the buildings have to be smart. In transport, there’s a big push toward electric vehicles. And in manufacturing, it must not damage the environment.”
For Rwanda, this vision offers not just a template but an opportunity to align national development goals with international investment standards.
“We stand to gain because of the innovations China has put in place,” Kimonyo said. “And the companies bringing those investments to Rwanda should also be able to ensure that what’s happening in China today in terms of high-quality development is what also happens in Rwanda.”
President Paul Kagame’s participation in the 2024 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Summit in Beijing underscored that alignment. During his visit, Kagame met with President Xi Jinping to review ongoing cooperation and discuss future collaboration in key sectors including infrastructure, agriculture, education, health and digital technology.
“The goal is to ensure our young people access cutting-edge education and that the skills they acquire here are going to be useful in our labor market,” Kimonyo said, referencing the education deals discussed during the summit.
As part of the long-term strategy, Rwanda is seeking both public and private investment from China. Public partnerships are being pursued in areas like health and energy, while the private sector is expected to drive growth in manufacturing, agriculture, and digital services.
“We know Rwanda has embraced the private-led growth philosophy,” Kimonyo said. “So engaging with the private sector and increasing the number of companies investing in Rwanda is going to be very critical for us going forward.”
People-to-people exchange is another pillar of the relationship. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Rwanda had around 2,000 students in China. While that number dipped during the global shutdowns, it has since rebounded to nearly 1,000 today, most of them pursuing advanced education. A smaller group is active in private business or employed by local Chinese companies, contributing further to the economic link between the two nations.
Looking ahead, Ambassador Kimonyo believes the next phase of Rwanda–China cooperation will be defined by smart partnerships and shared values around innovation and sustainability. He emphasized that as China refines its economic model to address climate and efficiency concerns, Rwanda is positioning itself to absorb the best of that experience.
