The Rwandan government kills and kidnaps opponents abroad and intimidates their relatives who remain in Rwanda. This transnational repression mainly takes place in African countries, but Rwandan secret agents are also active in the West. This is stated in a report by the human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) that was published on Tuesday. The report calls on the UK to scrap plans to send asylum seekers from around the world to Rwanda “in light of the real risks to their security”. The British Supreme Court began three days of hearings on this proposal on Monday, after the Court of Appeal previously ruled that the scheme is unlawful.
HRW spoke to 150 Rwandan exiles for the study and studied numerous kidnapping cases. They told of assassinations and kidnappings allegedly instigated by Rwandan embassies, and intimidation carried out by the Rwandan Community Abroad, a network of diaspora associations affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They put pressure on Rwandan exiles to return to Rwanda or to stop their criticism of the government, HRW writes.
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Since Paul Kagame’s Rwandan Patriotic Front took power after the 1994 genocide, numerous dissidents have been murdered abroad. The best known are the murder of ex-minister Seth Sendashonga in 1998 in Kenya, and that of Patrick Karegeya, former head of the external intelligence service in 2014 in South Africa, and two failed attacks on Kayumba Nyamwasa in South Africa, the former chief of staff of the army. The targets are often former employees of Kagame, or the (partly armed) opposition abroad. Journalists and critics also face intimidation, probably also in the Netherlands. Family members remaining in Rwanda are also threatened if exiles do not give in to the intimidation.
Prepared to be murdered
Murders, disappearances, kidnappings and physical attacks on Rwandans abroad occur mainly in countries where the Rwandan government has an active presence, through military deployments, embassies or economic partnerships. In Mozambique, for example, where Rwanda sent troops in 2021 to fight a terrorist group in the northern province of Cabo Delgado. At least three Rwandans have been killed or disappeared in Mozambique since that force arrived, and two others have survived kidnapping attempts since May 2021.
A Rwandan refugee in Mozambique says: “I’m scared all the time. I’m scared when I see a car stop behind me. I’m prepared to be killed at any moment now. I refused to go back to Rwanda, so they will kill me. You can’t go anywhere. It’s not safe here, but it’s not safe anywhere.” Rwandans in Belgium, France, Great Britain and the US also said they are afraid to meet each other and travel. The US FBI named Rwanda in 2022 as one of the foreign governments facilitating “transnational repression”.