Rwanda, 30 years on from genocide: Security, cleanliness, modernity and a heavy hand

On highway number 5 in Kigali, a line of cars is snapped tearing past a speed camera. The drivers don’t care. They know they will not be fined for these are official vehicles for the Tour de Rwanda cycling race. It is Sunday, February 25, and it is the final stage of the 27th edition of this race — a national pride. Seconds later, dozens of cyclists appear, among them, the four-time winner of the Tour de France, Kenyan-born Briton, Chris Froome. These same streets will be the site of next year’s World Road Cycling Championships. There is not a single pothole. Everything is perfectly signposted. Thirty years ago, in this same spot, there were barricades across the road and hundreds were being slaughtered with machetes.

Walking through the streets of Kigali, the Rwandan capital, today, it is hard to imagine that 30 years ago, in April 1994, a genocide was being perpetrated right here, triggered by the assassination of Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana, an ethnic Hutu. An estimated 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and some Hutu moderates who supported them were killed by around 200,000 radicalized Hutus in a campaign of ethnic violence that lasted 100 days. Hutus made up 85% of the population and Tutsis just 14% while the Twa ethnic group represented the remaining 1%.

Under the almost 25-year presidency of former military leader Paul Kagame, 66, Rwanda has become one of the cleanest, safest and most modern countries in sub-Saharan Africa. But this has been achieved by ruling with an iron fist which, rubberstamped by a guilt-ridden international community, has forced an uncomfortable silence in the streets, and redirected any conflict towards neighboring countries. “Our journey has been long and tough,” Kagame said on April 7 during events commemorating the 30-year anniversary. “Rwanda was completely humbled by the magnitude of our loss and the lessons we learned are engraved in blood.”

In November 2023, when the U.K. Supreme Court finally blocked the British government’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, it did so on the grounds that Rwanda was not safe (despite this, the Conservative government is still trying to push the agreement through). However, if you walk the streets of Kigali or the border town of Gisenyi at night, nothing will happen to you. Extreme police control, with units constantly on patrol, makes Rwanda the safest country in Africa according to several sources — that is, as long as there is no criticism of the government involved.

U.K. agreement

The Rwandan government cracks down hard on those who step out of line, even in exile, as illustrated by the assassination in 2014 in South Africa of Patrick Karegeya, former Rwandan intelligence chief who fell out of favor with Kagame. The South African prosecution flagged up a direct connection with the Rwandan government, although no charge could be brought.

When deciding to block the U.K. government’s proposal to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, the British justice system took into consideration the threats to dissidents denounced by human rights organizations such as Humans Rights Watch, which has documented at least a dozen kidnappings and murders abroad.

“I was disappointed when the British government said that Rwanda is a safe country,” main opposition politician Victoire Ingabire tells EL PAÍS. “I am convinced that they know there is a human rights problem. First, I oppose the policy because it is illegal but, moreover, Rwanda has limited resources to come up with lasting solutions for immigrants.”

Rwanda is a small territory inhabited by 13.2 million people. After Mauritius, it is the most densely populated country in Africa with 546 people per square meter and population growth one of its main challenges.

Ingabire is one of the few opponents of the Kagame regime who continues to live in Kigali and remain politically active. She returned to her country after 16 years in the Netherlands to stand as presidential candidate of an opposition coalition in 2010. While campaigning, she was arrested and two years later sentenced to an eight-year sentence that was eventually extended to 15 years for conspiring to destabilize the country along with genocide denial.

In 2018, Kagame released Ingabire along with 2,140 other political prisoners in a gesture to the international community that suggested he was moving towards a more democratic approach. But in 2021, Kagame’s government arrested nine members of Ingabire’s party, Dalfa-Umurinzi. There is a general election in Rwanda in July this year and Ingabire will not be able to run due to her previous conviction, as confirmed by the electoral commission. “The government has stopped me from running because I am popular among Rwandans, that is why. Kagame does not want to compete against me,” she says. In 2017, Kagame won at the polls with 98.8% of the vote; the result is expected to be similar this July.

Kagame claims that Rwandans are “happy” with his government and that is why there are no protests, but the repression makes free speech impossible. In 2013, nine members of a Catholic group staged a demonstration, calling for greater political freedom. All nine were arrested.

Genocide as a political weapon

Every year, Rwanda stages commemorative events to celebrate kwibuka — ‘remember’ in the local language of Kinyarwanda. “If we don’t organize kwibuka, we may forget,” says Napthali Ahishakiye, the secretary general of IBUKA, an umbrella organization of Rwandan genocide survivors. “Remembering is very important in life because it helps us learn.” Kagame’s government seeks to keep this episode fresh in everyone’s minds and teaches it from fifth grade in schools. In January this year, Ibuka led an operation to exhume 119 bodies killed in the genocide, concealed in a private plot of land. He says it is uncertain how many are still to be exhumed.

According to Ahishakiye, the biggest challenge is controlling genocide denial. “The government, Ibuka and schools can teach many things, but at home parents can tell another story,” he says. “The genocidal ideology is still there. There are fewer and fewer cases, and as the years go by, they become fewer, but even if there was only one case it would still be one too many.”

Despite advocating national unity at home and making any mention of ethnicity taboo, the Rwandan government continues to use the genocide and ethnic division to justify its actions in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo. The U.N., France and the United States have accused Rwanda of financing and arming the Tutsi-majority M23 rebel group, which has encircled the city of Goma in the Congo. In February, their clashes with the Congolese army and the U.N. blue helmets added 144,000 new displaced persons to the more than seven million in the country. According to data from the International Organization for Migration, 80% of them are taking refuge in the east.

“Every time [the M23] is successful, we are accused of being behind it, but of course the Democratic Republic of Congo’s government support for the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) worries us,” the spokesman of the Rwandan army, Brigadier General Ronald Rwivanga, tells EL PAÍS. “It is a problem of national security.” The military denies involvement and says that if there are troops on the border, it is only for defense, although he admits that more measures should be taken.

The Congolese government accuses Kagame of eyeing its minerals. Eastern Congo has two-thirds of the world’s cobalt and half of the world’s coltan — vital minerals for batteries — as well as gold, uranium and diamonds. The collective value of these untapped resources is estimated at $24 trillion (€22.5 billion), almost 100 times more than the entire U.S. economy. Meanwhile, Rwanda has virtually no natural resources.

The Rwandan government receives more than $1 billion (€922 million) in development aid each year from various partners, the highest per capita in all of Africa, accounting for 15% of its GDP and up to 40% of the national budget. The European Union gave the Rwandan government €250 million between 2021 and 2024, on top of specific aid packages such as the €300 million for private investment in climate resilience. “The international community has this feeling of guilt for not having done anything [during the genocide] and the Rwandan government exploits that,” says opposition politician Ingabire.

With this money, Rwanda has been able to build up its armed forces, as well revamping its image and becoming a vital security partner abroad. The country has gone from having a peacekeeping mission at home to being the fourth-largest contributor of troops to the U.N. with 5,919 blue helmets that are operating in countries such as Sudan, the Central African Republic and South Sudan — only slightly less than Nepal, Bangladesh and India. Recently, the government signed agreements with countries such as the Central African Republic and Mozambique, which are wrestling with rebel factions and jihadists, securing contracts for Rwandan companies in return.

Brand development

Kigali has also launched a strong public relations and image enhancement campaign with initiatives such as the Visit Rwanda brand, reaping significant success in the world of sport. Major events include the Cycling World Cup next year, the annual FIFA Congress in 2023 and, every season since 2021, the Basketball Africa League tournament, the biggest continental club tournament organized by the NBA. There is also the sponsorship of soccer teams such as France’s Paris Saint-Germain, Britain’s Arsenal and Germany’s Bayern Munich, to the tune of between $8 million and $12 million each season.

The opposition claims that the government should invest more in modernizing agriculture, which employs two thirds of Rwandan workers. Despite promoting an image of development, almost half of the population still lives in poverty, according to the United Nations Development Program.

In 30 years, Rwanda has come on leaps and bounds and international news about the country is often positive, not least because it is the country with the most women parliamentarians in the world, with women holding 61.3% of seats. However, beyond Congress, the lack of stable job opportunities is widespread, with 90% of inhabitants eking out a living in the gray economy. Outside the capital, infrastructure is precarious and wealth has failed to trickle down, with the population surviving on an average GDP per capita of less than $1,000 a year.

Thirty years after the genocide, silence is Rwanda’s greatest enemy. “Rwandans keep everything inside. They don’t talk and, when they can’t take it anymore, they explode; you see what happened in 1994,” says Ingabire, who recalls that power has been traditionally obtained through violence in the absence of alternatives. She believes that it cannot be taken for granted that something like the 1994 genocide will not happen again. “They are creating the same environment that led to the conflict in 1994,” she says. “I hope the international community will not make the same mistake.”

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