Diplomatic Briefing
Your exclusive news aggregator handpicked daily!Archive for Rwanda
Newsline: Rwanda criticized expulsion of its ambassador from Congo
Rwanda accused neighboring Congo of escalating tensions between the two countries after the Rwandan ambassador to Congo was given 48 hours to leave the country following rebel advances in the east. In a statement issued after Rwandan Ambassador Vincent Karega was order to leave Congo, the Rwandan government said its forces along the border “remain on alert.” “It is regrettable the government of the DRC continues to scapegoat Rwanda to cover up and distract from their own governance and security failures,” said the statement attributed to the Office of the Government Spokesperson. (https://news.yahoo.com/rwanda-criticizes-expulsion-ambassador-congo-172010084.html) Congo believes that Rwanda is supporting the M23 rebels, who have expanded their control over the past year. On Saturday, residents said the rebels gained control of two more towns, including Kiwanja.
Newsline: Congo police fire tear gas to disperse protest over Rwandan diplomat
Police in Congo’s capital Kinshasa fired tear gas on Friday to disperse around 100 protesters calling for the expulsion of the Rwandan ambassador they accuse of denying a massacre during the 1998-2003 Congo war. Two people were seriously injured, one of whom was in critical condition, after inhaling tear gas and being beaten by police, said Carbone Beni from the campaign group Filimbi, which organised the protest. Kinshasa’s police chief Sylvano Kasongo confirmed some protesters were hurt, but said injuries were not serious. The city’s governor had not authorised the demonstration, he said. The protest was broken up before the group reached the Rwandan embassy. In August, Ambassador Vincent Karega responded to a Twitter post that accused Rwandan troops of killing more than a thousand people in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo in August 1998. “Blatant incoherence between image and history… accusation without evidence is called slander,” Karega tweeted and later deleted. Karega told Reuters on Friday his comments had been misinterpreted and he did not deny that a massacre had taken place. (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-congo-protest-rwanda/congo-police-fire-tear-gas-to-disperse-protest-over-rwandan-diplomat-idUSKBN25V2M9) He said he was thankful for the level of organisation shown during Friday’s protest.
Newsline: Israel opened embassy in Rwanda
Israel opened a new embassy in the Rwandan capital Kigali, in a sign of strengthening relations between the two countries. The new mission was opened by the director of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, Yuval Rotem, and Rwandan Foreign Minister Richard Sezibera, the Times of Israel reported. Addressing the ceremony, Rotem said he is “confident that the opening of the Israeli embassy in Rwanda will within a few years bring our relations with Rwanda and with the African continent to a whole new level.” (https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190402-israel-opens-embassy-in-rwanda/) Israel’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement about the new mission, saying: “The opening of the embassy reflects the ongoing strengthening of relations between the two states and will enable expansion of the cooperation between them in many areas, such as education, academia, women empowerment, science and technology, innovation and agriculture.” The decision to open an embassy in Rwanda was first announced in February, when the new Israeli Ambassador Ron Adam presented his credentials to the Rwandan Foreign Ministry.
Newsline: Israel opens embassy in Rwanda
In a historic first, Israel on Feb. 22 opened an embassy in Rwanda as Jerusalem pushes for warmer ties with African nations. Rwandan Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Richard Sezibera accepted the Israeli ambassador’s credentials night during a signing ceremony for a number of diplomats establishing new diplomatic missions in Kigali, according to several social media posts from both Israeli and Rwandan officials (https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/diplomacy-defense/195792-190222-israel-opens-first-embassy-in-rwanda-as-pm-pushes-africa-ties). Israeli Ambassador Ron Adam’s new diplomatic post will be geared toward bilateral cooperation in the fields of health, technology, education, agriculture, and cyber-security.
Newsline: Israel to open first embassy in Rwanda as part of ‘expansion in Africa’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will open an embassy in Rwanda for the first time. Netanyahu said he apprised Rwandan President Paul Kagame of the decision at a meeting in Nairobi, Kenya. The opening of the embassy “is part of the expansion of Israel’s presence in Africa and the deepening of cooperation between Israel and African countries,” Netanyahu said in a statement. His visit to Kenya is his third to Africa in a year and a half. Israel and Rwanda re-established ties in 1994 after they were broken in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War.
Newsline: Ethiopia to Open Embassy in Rwanda
Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn who is on a three-day state visit to Rwanda will open his country’s embassy in Rwanda. The news was announced by Rwanda’s Foreign Affairs Minister Louise Mushikiwabo. Ethiopia has been carrying out its diplomatic relations with Rwanda through its embassy in Uganda. Rwanda opened its first embassy in Ethiopia in 1978.
Newsline: Rwanda to Open Embassy in Angola
Rwanda will soon open an embassy in Angola to strengthen cooperation between the two countries. This was announced by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Louise Mushikiwabo, shortly after the Angolan Minister for External Relations, Georges Rebelo Chikoti, met President Paul Kagame at Village Urugwiro in Kigali. Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos is the current chair of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region.
Newsline: Rwandan Embassies Faulted for Poor Financial Reports
The Auditor-General has cited lack of supervision in the expenditure of public finances at Rwandan diplomatic missions across the globe, calling up the missions and the line ministries “to get their acts together.” In an exclusive interview with The New Times, Obadiah Biraro said avoidable hitch in public financial management is the lack of proper accounting records, which he said the audit for the fiscal year 2011/2012 found lacking in five of the 25 embassies audited. Biraro presented the report to a joint parliamentary session. The report noted improvement in the way entities accounted for funds.
Newsline: DR Congo war crimes suspect taken from US embassy in Rwanda to ICC prison
Congolese war crimes suspect Bosco Ntaganda spent his first night in custody at the International Criminal Court Saturday, having turned himself in to face charges ranging from murder and rape to using child soldiers. The first ever suspect to voluntarily surrender to the ICC, Ntaganda is wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed during his years as a warlord in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The man known as “The Terminator” walked into the US embassy in Rwanda on Monday and asked to be sent to the Hague-based court. Ntaganda was allegedly involved in the murder of at least 800 people in villages in the volatile east of the DR Congo. He is also accused of having kept child soldiers in his rebel army and using women as sex slaves between September 2002 and September 2003. He was taken into ICC custody in Kigali and flown to Rotterdam airport late on Friday. The ICC tweeted shortly after that “Bosco Ntaganda arrived to the ICC detention centre”, under Dutch police escort in The Hague’s seaside suburb of Scheveningen. US Secretary of State John Kerry hailed a major step for “justice and accountability.”
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/130323/dr-congo-war-crimes-suspect-ntaganda-icc-prison
Newsline: Congo warlord remains at US Embassy
Wanted on an international warrant for alleged war crimes, Congolese warlord Bosco Ntaganda lived openly in Congo for years, playing tennis at exclusive clubs and dining at lakeside restaurants in full view of foreign diplomats and U.N. peacekeepers. That all ended when the 39-year-old known as “The Terminator” suddenly turned himself in Monday to the U.S. Embassy in Rwanda and asked to be handed over to the International Criminal Court — a surprise move that followed a split in Ntaganda’s rebel group and apparent loss of support from his backers in the Rwandan government. In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Tuesday that Ntaganda would remain at the U.S. Embassy in Kigali while U.S. officials worked to “facilitate his transfer to The Hague at his own request.” Ntaganda was then told by his Rwandan contacts to go to the U.S. Embassy, he said, noting that the United States is not a member of the International Criminal Court and has no obligation to hand Ntaganda over to the court. Nuland said the U.S. had no prior contact with Ntaganda or advance notice that he would turn up at the embassy. “It was a walk-in in the truest sense of the word,” she said. She declined to say why he chose the U.S. Embassy or whether he may have feared for his safety.
Diplomatic Briefing 