The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC’s) foreign minister, Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner, has written to Arsenal owners Stan Kroenke and son Josh, asking them to end the sponsorship deal with Rwanda in light of the recent invasion of Congolese territory.
The DRC minister directly accuses the Rwandan government of supporting rebel groups who have engaged in “rape, murder and theft” in eastern DRC – adding that Arsenal’s “sponsor is directly responsible for this misery”.
‘Countless lives have been lost – your sponsor is directly responsible for this misery’ Kayikwamba Wagner said in her letter to the Kroenkes: “Thousands are currently trapped in the city of Goma with restricted access to food, water, and security. Countless lives have been lost; rape, murder and theft prevail. Your sponsor is directly responsible for this misery.”
Kayikwamba Wagner also stated in her letter to the Kroenkes that DRC believes the Rwandan-backed forces had plundered “millions of tons of minerals” including copper cobalt, lithium and gold, taken them back across the border and then sold them into the global market.
She demanded that the “Visit Rwanda” deal, first agreed in May 2018 between Arsenal and the Rwandan government, should be ended immediately. “If not,” she added, “for your own consciences, then the clubs should do it for the victims of Rwandan aggression.”
“I write to question the morality of your club, your supporters and your players,” she said, “as to why you are continuing your relationship with ‘Visit Rwanda’.
“While Arsenal played its final match of the first phase of this year’s Uefa Champions League [last week] 500,000 more people became displaced in the eastern DRC.”
Kayikwamba Wagner has sent the same letter to Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-German, who have similar deals with the “Visit Rwanda” tourism campaign, to ask them to break off from it.
The DRC says that 500,000 people have been displaced in the eastern part of the country with 4,000 Rwandan troops active in the territory as well as the Rwanda-backed rebel group, M23.
The British foreign secretary, David Lammy, has warned Rwanda president Paul Kagame this week that the invasion puts at risk $1 billion in international aid. Kayikwamba Wagner declared in her letter to Arsenal that they had done a deal with an “oppressor nation”.
This week, M23 rebels captured Goma and are now seeking to take the city of Bukavu, and their leaders have stated that the plan is to take the capital Kinshasa.
The United Nations says that 700 people have been killed so far in the fighting and a further 2,800 have been injured. Rwanda has claimed that its troops have been deployed in the DRC only as a defensive measure to stop the conflict spilling into Rwanda.
