{"id":52834,"date":"2025-02-04T13:48:02","date_gmt":"2025-02-04T13:48:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/wasted-effort-kagame-dismisses-congolese-appeal-to-soccer-teams-to-cancel\/"},"modified":"2025-02-06T10:10:45","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T10:10:45","slug":"wasted-effort-kagame-dismisses-congolese-appeal-to-soccer-teams-to-cancel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wasted-effort-kagame-dismisses-congolese-appeal-to-soccer-teams-to-cancel\/","title":{"rendered":"“Wasted effort”: Kagame dismisses Congolese appeal to soccer teams to cancel partnerships"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Congolese government has called for Arsenal, Bayern Munich, and Paris Saint-Germain to sever their partnerships, accusing the Rwandan government of using sports as a tool for “sportswashing” amid ongoing tensions in eastern DR Congo.<\/p>\n

Congo\u2019s Foreign Minister, Th\u00e9r\u00e8se Kayikwamba Wagner, recently wrote to the clubs, questioning the morality of their deals with Rwanda, alleging the sponsorship is funded by illicit mining from conflict zones in eastern DR Congo.<\/p>\n

However, during an exclusive interview with CNN, President Kagame firmly rejected the accusations, terming the Congolese government\u2019s campaign a “wasted effort.”<\/p>\n

The Head of State suggested that the Congolese government’s focus should be on managing internal issues and solving the country\u2019s political problems.<\/p>\n

President Kagame maintained that Rwanda is not directly involved in arming or supporting the M23 rebels.<\/p>\n

He pointed out that much of the “sophisticated equipment” used by M23 in the recent fighting, which led to the capture of Goma City, came from the Congolese army, which had been defeated and pursued by the rebels.<\/p>\n

During the interview, President Kagame expressed frustration with President F\u00e9lix Tshisekedi\u2019s absence from diplomatic engagements aimed at addressing the conflict, especially after he skipped a Heads of State extraordinary summit that brought together Heads of State from the East African Community (EAC) to deliberate on the security situation in eastern Congo.<\/p>\n

“When you have a problem, you must look for the cause. The one with the problem must seek a solution,” Kagame emphasized.<\/p>\n

President Kagame has often accused the Congolese administration of ignoring the root causes of the conflict in the eastern region and prioritizing military solutions over a political resolution, which can be achieved through dialogue with the M23 group fighting for the interests of the Congolese Rwandophones, particularly the Tutsi community.<\/p>\n

Speaking in a separate interview with Al Jazeera, Rwanda’s Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe dismissed the narrative of Rwanda exploiting minerals in Congo as a distraction from the more profound issues of ethnic persecution and governance failures.<\/p>\n

“This narrative of minerals as the root cause of this conflict is really a lazy and unacceptable narrative,” he remarked, stressing that the conflict\u2019s core lies in the protection and rights of communities.<\/p>\n

The Visit Rwanda campaign, launched in 2018, has helped raise the country\u2019s global profile, with significant partnerships with high-profile football clubs, which have boosted Rwanda’s tourism sector and foreign investments.<\/p>\n

Rwanda has repeatedly dismissed sportswashing claims, with the country\u2019s Chief Tourism Officer, Irene Murerwa, calling such claims a “distraction” from Rwanda\u2019s achievements.<\/p>\n

\"President<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Paul Kagame has dismissed the Democratic Republic of Congo\u2019s appeal to major European football clubs, urging them to end their sponsorship deals with Rwanda\u2019s tourism board, Visit Rwanda.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000081078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[75],"byline":[192],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-52834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-homenews","byline-wycliffe-nyamasege"],"bylines":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"contributors":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"featured_image":{"id":2000081078,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/paul_kagame_he-88899.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/paul_kagame_he-88899.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/paul_kagame_he-88899.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/paul_kagame_he-88899.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/paul_kagame_he-88899.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/paul_kagame_he-88899.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000081078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52834"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=52834"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=52834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}