who is Paul Kagame, multifaceted president?

Since the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda, the country has been governed by Paul Kagame. Known for having defeated the genocidaires in 1994 and for having put a traumatized nation back on its feet, he also has a dark side.

He has made Rwanda today one of the most stable, most developed countries on the African continent. With growth of around 8-10%, no corruption, a prime tourist destination, Rwanda is a safe country, which relies on the most disciplined army on the African continent. This is the work of Paul Kagame, former president of the African Union, a unifying figure, and the face of a sovereign and ambitious Africa.

Thirty years after the genocide in Rwanda, the country will pay tribute, Saturday April 6 and Sunday April 7, to the hundreds of thousands of Tutsis victims of violence by their Hutu compatriots. In 1994, Paul Kagame was a commander in the Rwandan Patriotic Front, the rebel armed group that won the Rwandan civil war and ended the Tutsi genocide. Considered “the strong man of Rwanda”, he became vice-president and minister of defense in 1994, then president in 2000.

Three consecutive mandates and a muzzled opposition

In 2024, this experienced leader finds himself at the head of a young country, with a population of 19 on average. He understood that it is by banking on this youth that the country will be able to continue to heal from the trauma of 1994. We must also overcome the 20% unemployment from which the country suffers. Unlike its neighbors, Rwanda has no natural wealth. Its president is therefore betting on innovation, with the opening two years ago of the first African center for the fourth industrial revolution. Paul Kagame wants to make Rwanda one of the most important technological hubs on the continent.

However, this president is also seen as an autocrat. In power for 24 years, a vice-presidency followed by three consecutive mandates, he amended the constitution in 2015, which authorizes him to run until 2034. He is a head of state who is very difficult to contradict and he is accused of muzzling his opponents to avoid turbulence within the country.

What role in the North Kivu conflict and its six million deaths?

He is also suspected of maintaining chaos among his neighbor Félix Tshisekedi, president of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ten days ago, he said this: “Rwanda’s methods are crimes against humanity. They massacre entire populations wantonly, they sow terror and push these populations to leave their locality. Because their aim is to plunder the mineral resources of a on the one hand, and on the other hand, to establish new populations there.”

The conflict in North Kivu, on the border between Rwanda and the DRC, has left six million dead and four million displaced over the past 20 years. The United States, France and the United Nations have successively accused Paul Kagame of supporting the M23, the predominantly Tutsi armed group responsible for daily abuses against the Congolese populations.