The Rwanda Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has suspended the remainder of the 2024-2029 bilateral aid program with Belgium, citing sabotage by the European state and former colonial master.
Data from the Belgium Embassy in Rwanda shows, the suspended programme had been planned for July 2024 to June 2029, and has a budget of EUR 95 million with a focus on strengthening the sexual and reproductive health.
The programme was also targeting the agriculture sector focusing on small livestock and fodder value chains, and there was also planned development of satellite towns of Rwamagana and Bugesera. Other key areas included public fund management system, gender and climate.
“As the international community is being called upon to support the mediation process mandated by the African Union and the Joint EAC-SADC Summit to resolve the crisis in Eastern DRC, Belgium has led an aggressive campaign, together with DRC, aiming to sabotage Rwanda’s access to development finance, including in multilateral institutions,” Rwanda said in a statement.
The statement added that, Belgium has made a political decision to choose a side in the conflict, “which is its right, but politicizing development is plainly wrong,” adding that, “No country in the region should have its development finance jeopardized as a tool of leverage.”
Rwanda added that the punitive, one-sided measures can only be construed as unwarranted external interference that undermines the African-led mediation process, and thereby risks delaying the peaceful resolution of the conflict, noting that such measures have repeatedly failed to provide a solution in the past, only adding to the problems and deferring them to the future.
These efforts demonstrate that there is no longer a sound basis for development cooperation with Belgium.
Rwanda has declared that it will not be bullied or blackmailed into compromising national security and its only aim is a secure border, and an irreversible end to the politics of violent ethnic extremism in our region.
“Rwanda needs peace and a durable solution, and no one should continue to tolerate the cycles of conflict which continually recur because of the failure of the DRC Government and the international community, decade after decade, to fulfil their commitments to dismantle the UN-sanctioned genocidal FDLR militia, and protect minority rights.”
The Kagame-led nation noted that development partnerships must be based on mutual respect, and Rwanda has made it a point to ensure maximum accountability for all the funding we receive, a fact that no partner has questioned.
“Maintaining mutual respect, and fully supporting the AU/EAC/SADC mediation, is essential during these difficult moments for our region,” the statement concludes.
Additional data from the Belgium Embassy shows the two countries have been partners in development cooperation since 1962, with Belgium contributing EUR 44 million of official development assistance in Rwanda in 2022.
The programme under suspension is a direct continuation of the previous bilateral programme from 2019-2024.
A second thematic cooperation programme with focus on the creation of decent work and the strengthening of social protection is also ongoing.
This programme runs from 2022 to 2026 and has a budget of EUR 17.6 million. It’s part of a regional programme that is also active in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, with a total budget of EUR 50 million.
Belgium has also been key funder of Rwanda’s operations through supporting the civil society, academic exchanges through higher institutions of learning, support to Rwanda’s private sector, multilateral cooperation and offering humanitarian aid through international agencies as well as European partnerships.