Kagame calls US sanctions on Rwanda 'insults'

Rwanda President Paul Kagame. [AFP]

President Paul Kagame has described US sanctions as "insults thrown in the face" of Rwanda and said Washington is exerting "heavy pressure" on Kigali but treating the DR Congo "delicately".

The United States announced sanctions early March against the Rwandan army over its support for the M23 anti-governmental group, which has seized swathes of the mineral-rich eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since 2021.

The DRC and Rwanda signed a peace deal at US President Donald Trump's urging in December, in the latest attempt to end the conflict but clashes have continued on the front.

"Sanctions and threats are nothing but insults thrown in the face of my country," Kagame said in an interview with Jeune Afrique news outlet at the end of March and published Friday.

The US government "must not give the impression of exerting heavy pressure on one while treating the other delicately", he said.

Kagame said that Rwanda was fulfilling "all its obligations under the agreements" signed in Washington, unlike the DRC, which, he said, "only very partially meets them or not at all".

The M23 made advances in early 2025, capturing the major eastern cities of Goma and Bukavu.

Days after the signing of the US-brokered peace deal, the armed group seized another major city, Uvira on the border with Burundi, provoking an angry response from the United States.

Rwanda has insisted it is only involved in the eastern DRC to help protect against an enemy militia formed from the remnants of those involved in the 1994 Rwandan genocide of Tutsis.

"Don't expect me to lift our defence measures while you are doing nothing to stop what threatens my country," Kagame said in the interview.

He also called on oil giants Total, Exxon Mobil or Eni to "find a way to finance the security they need" in Mozambique's oil-rich but restive northern Cabo Delgado province.

Rwanda last month threatened to withdraw its troops fighting Islamist insurgents from Cabo Delgado if financing was not guaranteed by the European Union, which funds the deployment.

Rwandan forces have been deployed to the area since 2021.

The operation has been backed by 40 million euros ($46 million) in EU funding for equipment and strategic airlift, according to Brussels.