'THE KING LEOPOLD OF 2024 IS PAUL KAGAME'

Rwanda is under scrutiny for supporting M23 rebels in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) amidst M23 reportedly entering Goma city, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee.

A June 2024 UN experts' report revealed that the central African state had dispatched as many as 4,000 troops to reinforce M23 insurgents and provided advanced weaponry and logistical assistance.

Since the breakdown of peace talks between Rwandan and Congolese leaders in mid-December 2024, M23 has surged forward, seizing vast areas of mineral-rich land and claiming control of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province.

Kambale Musavuli, a guest on our ‘Pan-African Attitude’ podcast in April 2024, drew a striking parallel between Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Belgian King Leopold II, notorious for his brutal exploitation of Congo, which he colonised from 1885 to 1908 as the ‘Congo Free State.’

Kambale, a Congolese native and an analyst with the Center for Research on Congo-Kinshasa, explains that Rwanda serves as a crucial conduit for Congo's mineral wealth, a reality Kagame has acknowledged.

Just as Leopold mercilessly extracted rubber from Congo over a century ago to fuel the United States' burgeoning automotive industry, Musavuli contends that Kagame permits the West and its allies to smuggle Congolese minerals essential for electric vehicles (EVs) to facilitate the West's clean energy shift.

Approximately 6 million Congolese had been klled between 1998 and 2010 and over 7 million have been displaced in the country's three-decade resource war, which also features horrific sxual and human rights abuses.

Sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gql91CphSXk

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-53017188

https://www.caritas.org/2010/02/six-million-dead-in-congos-war/

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/1/29/dr-congo-live-news-rwanda-backed-m23-rebels-tighten-grip-on-goma