The reason given by Paul Kagame to justify the presence of the Rwandan army in the east of the DRC changes depending on the realities of the moment and the interlocutor in front of him
In 1994, Paul Kagame and his rebel group shot down the plane carrying two African presidents; Juvénal Habyarimana of Rwanda and his counterpart from Burundi, Cyprien Ntaryamira. The Hutus, the tribe from which President Habyarimana descended, took revenge on the Tutsi tribe from which Paul Kagame comes. A genocide is being committed. To secure his march towards Kigali, Kagame eliminated the moderate Hutus and Tutsis along his route and, the toll rises to 800,000 dead.
Kagame becomes the strong man of Rwanda but the presence of FDLR soldiers loyal to Habyarimana to whom a corridor has been opened in the east of the DRC remains a threat to his power. He pursues them there. This is the first reason for the Rwandan presence in eastern DRC. However, after 31 years, the FDLR have aged, some have died and others have moved to countries such as South Africa, Belgium, France, Mozambique, Zambia…Challenged on this, Kagame puts forward another reason and self-proclaimed himself the defender and protector of the Banyamulenge, the Congolese Tutsi living in Kivu and who, according to him, are threatened in ethnic conflicts. This thesis does not hold up because the tribe he says is threatened is well integrated and even very present in the institutions of the republic. The DRC has 450 tribes and if there are ethnic conflicts, they have always been resolved internally: no need for external interference in a sovereign country. This is also the reason that the M23 has always put forward.
After the assassination of Laurent-Désiré Kabila in his office by the Rwandans, he had, in the thirst for power, taken with him during the AFDL march towards Kinshasa and whom he had presented to the Congolese population with as ''These are all our brothers; There are no Rwandans among those who accompany me!'', Joseph Kabila who replaced him, through negotiations with the M23, sold the DRC to Kagame who became king to the point of plundering the riches of the Congolese subsoil at his leisure. This is also the third and most real reason that Kagame avoids each time it is mentioned. It is the illicit exploitation of minerals from the DRC of which he has become an official seller to the European Union and Western corporations. The rebel groups including the M23 that he set up and to which he gives Congolese faces by using Congolese bad sheep have, with the support of the Rwandan army, sowed the death of 10 to 15 million Congolese since 1997. A silent genocide to which the whole world turned a blind eye. The irony went further to favor Rwanda, the world's leading producer of coltan, knowing well that Rwanda does not have this mineral in its subsoil.
Today, the presence of the Rwandan army in Eastern Congo has one objective and the same since 1997: The plundering of minerals from the DRC to establish the financial power and the dictatorship of one man: Paul Kagame.
