Western ‘experts’ err on Rwanda intervention in Mozambique

Ever since the July 9 deployment of 1,000 Rwandan troops to fight the vicious Islamic State-linked terrorists in Mozambique’s Province of Cabo Delgado, several so-called experts have tried, endlessly, to guess the motives behind this intervention, and who is funding it. 

Most of those pundits quoted by the global north media share some common traits. Only a few are Africans who act as stooges working for interests of other people. By and large,  they all espouse the same malpractice of viewing Africa, its peoples, and its problems through a defective parochial.

In the article, “What does Rwanda stand to gain from its Mozambique deployment” published by Zitamar News, an online publication, there are quotes from a wide range of the so-called experts whose opinions are distant from the reality. It allows some of them space to peddle their anti-Rwanda hate propaganda. At the same time, such pieces also expose how these ‘experts’ fail to appreciate the positives about a military intervention mission not directed by Western powers.

One of those so-called experts who are out of touch with reality is Michela Wrong, a British journalist and writer, well-known for hating Rwanda’s government. Worse still, Wrong is one of the diehard deniers of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

Though the Rwandan government has time and again explained that its troops deployment was solely based on bilateral relationships between two African countries: Rwanda and Mozambique, Wrong and her type keep misleading public opinion with weird conspiracies.

What Rwanda did, by quickly deploying troops when asked, was, according to Amb. Moussa Faki Mahamat,  Chairperson of the African Union Commission, “a  strong and concrete act of African solidarity to support a fellow Member State fight terrorism and insecurity.”

Kigali’s bold step was a strong Pan-African engagement And a great source of inspiration to other states. Wrong and other Western ‘experts' will never be impressed, or inspired, but readers should not be duped by their smear campaign.

The deployment is based on existing good bilateral relations between Kigali and Maputo. It is also grounded, as Kigali has underscored, in Rwanda’s commitment to the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine and the 2015 Kigali Principles on the Protection of Civilians.

Today, Rwandan troops, working closely with their Mozambican counterparts, have recaptured nearly 95 percent of the territory earlier controlled by the terrorists. They  have already helped more than 3,000 previously displaced people return to their homes. They will only stop once the last IDP camp is closed and everyone is back home and secure.

In an interview with reporters on September 5, Rwandan President Paul Kagame explained that Rwanda is funding this operation and that his country has not received any external financial support.

But Wrong and others will continue spreading  the narrative that Rwanda is in Mozambique in pursuit of undeclared financial gains, and is probably supported by France which has a stake in economic investments in Cabo Delgado trough Total Energy company.

Rwandan  troops are in Mozambique to help solve security problems which have beset a friendly African country. As Kagame put it recently, using an African analogy, the Rwandan troops rushed to Mozambique like someone would do when a neighbour’s house is on fire. You don’t stand by and look on when a neighbour’s house catches fire. You act to help put the fire out. That is what Rwanda is doing in Mozambique, and it was invited by the latter to help too.

Rwanda’s arch-hater, Wrong, also cooks up a strange idea that the troops’ deployment allows Kagame to present himself in a favourite guise, shaming other African countries with his energy and guts. “It’s a godsend,” she claims. This bizarre view from a writer who has shown her true colours in her recent book, Do Not Disturb, is not surprising.

However, what is dumfounding is Wrong’s idea that Rwanda would deploy troops in Mozambique to undermine the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), and specifically South Africa, with which Rwanda has had some lingering issues.

Even though Rwandan troops were the first to arrive in Cabo Delgado, SADC forces joined the fight later and are collaborating well.

Another spurious allegation made by the so-called experts is that Rwandan forces were deployed in Mozambique to fend off the growing influence of the so-called opposition Rwanda National Congress (RNC) in Southern Africa, especially in Mozambique. This is farfetched and has no substance in it.

Some Bloggers took to Tweeter to condemn these ‘experts’. Celestin Hategekimana, noted that these experts “totally miss the point!”

“What was supposed to be your first concern is saving people’s lives, not the interests of Rwanda in the matter. This is another kind of racism because according to your analysis, Mozambicans’ lives don’t matter.”

More than 50 people were beheaded by terrorists in the province in April 2020 and a similar number in November 2020. On March 24, they seized Palma, murdering dozens of civilians displacing more than 35,000 of the town's 75,000 residents.

For Abdul Karim Harelimana, the analysis by such ‘experts' fits in well with the orthodoxy behind the West’s interventions in conflict.  He wrote: “This is western style wherever they intervene with force, there’s some gain behind.”

Tom Ndahiro wrote: “The writer of this piece is heartless and racist. In the whole article, the lives of people were killed (mostly beheaded) by terrorist insurgents in Mozambique don’t matter. Destroyed infrastructure deserved no space. No Rwandan or Mozambican asked for a comment.”