Kagame: a 'chess-player' getting his way in DR Congo

Burundian police officers assist Congolese refugees, displaced by ongoing clashes in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to disembark from a truck upon arrival at the Gihanga refugee transit camp in Gihanga on February 17, 2025. [AFP]

Rwanda's President Paul Kagame has shown his strategic acumen, honed by 30 years of cementing control at home and influence abroad, as conflict flares in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Raised as a refugee, forged by a Ugandan bush war and the horrific Rwandan genocide of 1994, Kagame takes no chances when it come to threats to his country and personal authority, experts say.