Rwanda : Rwanda responds to aid cuts
In the wake of losing aid from its biggest budget support ; US, Netherlands and Britain, over its policy in DR Congo, Rwanda has said that western countries should stop treating the Rwandan government like small children.
The United States has blocked $200,000 in military aid to the central African nation and the Netherlands suspended 5 million Euros, and Britain withheld £16 million of UK aid after being accused of fuelling a rebellion in the Democratic Republic of Congo that has driven 470,000 people from their homes.
Britain is Rwanda’s largest bilateral donor, with a £75 million aid programme this year.
These actions of aid cuts come after a United Nations interim report said Rwanda was backing rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The western media has also continuously insisted that Rwanda is responsible for the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo; however President Paul Kagame in various TV interviews, has made it categorical that Rwanda is not involved in the Congolese conflict, and the issues should be re-addressed by their government, instead of making Rwanda a scapegoat.
“This child-to-parent relationship has to end, there has to be  minimum respect,” The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Louise Mushikiwabo said in an address to a Kenyan business club called Mindspeak, this weekend.
Mushikiwabo said it was too early to tell what kind of damage the withholding of aid would do to the government’s economic development push. “As long as countries wave chequebooks over our heads, we can never be equal.” she added that Africans had to work hard to develop their economies in order to stop relying on western donors.
Rwanda’s Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo expressed regret at “hasty decisions based on flimsy evidence” made by donor partners on Rwandan budget support. There have been various media reports in recent days about development partners suspending or deferring aid disbursements to Rwanda in light of the Group of Experts report on the crisis in the eastern DRC. Minister Mushikiwabo said:
“We have just concluded discussions with the Group of Experts and comprehensively rebutted every one of the allegations with conclusive documentary evidence. Once we share this with development partners, we believe this will provide them the reassurance they seek in light of an orchestrated media and political campaign to blame Rwanda for this crisis.”
“Rwanda is impatient in pursuit of poverty reduction, economic development and self-sufficiency. Our people cannot afford this kind of distraction.”
Apparently, both president Kagame and Mushikiwabo have however, said that the Rwandan government is very willing to help the Congolese government to bring an end to this regional conflict, which so far has posed danger of insecurity and increased numbers of refugees in the neighboring countries, especially along the borders of Rwanda and Uganda.
