By: Dr David Himbara
General Paul Kagame’s former friend, DRC’s head of state Felix Tshisekedi delivered a speech on February 26, 2022, that marked the end of their bromance.
Without naming Kagame directly, Tshisekedi painted Kagame’s Rwanda as a country which thinks that it will always reap dividends by manufacturing conflicts with its neighbours.
In Tshisekedi’s own words: “I am deeply convinced that it is a sacred duty of each State in our sub-region to avoid any act that generates tensions and conflicts with others, or at the very least, to minimize the risks. It is unrealistic and unproductive, even suicidal for a country in our sub-region, to think that it would always reap dividends by maintaining conflicts or tensions with its neighbours.”
In his own speech delivered the day after Tshisekedi’s speech, Kagame likened Rwanda to the Biblical David who killed Goliath, the giant. As Kagame put it, “David confronted giants who wanted him dead and he knocked them over. You can see the similarities with our country.”
The Kagame-Tshisekedi bromance is over.
Stay tuned.