Coletta WanjohiRwanda has become the latest African country struck by international sanctions as the UK, US, Canada and Germany clamp restrictions on bilateral relations and trade with Kigali by linking it to the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The quartet has accused Rwanda of supporting M23, a rebel group that has laid siege to parts of eastern DRC.
As DRC and the United Nations double down on these allegations, Rwanda argues that sanctions won't solve the crisis in the DRC.
In response to Canada's decision to cease new business and development funding in the East African nation, Rwanda's foreign affairs ministry has said that the colonial history of some Western powers continues to bear down on the continent.
"Countries like Germany that bear a historical responsibility for the recurring instability in this region should know better than to apply one-sided, coercive measures," the statement points out.
Dialogue holds the key
The conflict in DRC remains of concern for Africa and the world amid continued depredations by the M23 in South and North Kivu Provinces.
Botsang Moiloa, a geopolitical analyst, warns against the possibility of "undiplomatic finger-pointing" queering the pitch.
"The situation in DRC is dynamic, involving a lot of hands from various regions of the world," Moiloa says in an interview with TRT Afrika.
"If you are going to start pointing fingers when we are supposed to be engaging in a negotiated settlement for peace, we are delaying the problem, not solving it."
Rwanda's Foreign Ministry said the sanctions were unwarranted external interference which risks prolonging the resolution of the conflict
The African Union says dialogue between Rwanda and DRC is the only solution to the protracted fighting that has taken a heavy toll on lives and infrastructure.
The intergovernmental East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) convened a summit this February attended by President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and his DRC counterpart Felix Tshisekedi.
The accent of the discussion was on DRC having talks with M23 rebels to iron out the impasse.
"The history of that conflict is well known and the solutions are there," President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda wrote on his X handle. "Right from the beginning, our advice to the involved parties in the Congo-M23 conflict was negotiation.’’
Old bogey of sanctions
Uganda's public acknowledgement of the compulsions that drove it to join the bloc of the world’s emerging economies, BRICS, as a partner state in 2024 highlights how developing countries sometimes find themselves between a rock and a hard place.
This dynamic is reflected in Western powers like the US and the European Union wielding sanctions as a weapon whenever any nation defies their mandates or takes an opposing view on contentious issues.
In June 2023, the US clamped travel restrictions and tapered down aid to Uganda after the East African nation passed a bill into law criminalising gay relationships in line with the culture and beliefs of the Ugandan people.
Later that year, former US President Joe Biden announced his government's decision to end Gabon, Niger, Uganda and the Central African Republic's participation in the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) trade programme, citing various reasons.
Biden claimed "gross violations" of internationally recognised human rights by the Central African Republic and Uganda.
In Niger and Gabon's case, he accused the two countries of "failure to establish or make continual progress toward the protection of political pluralism and the rule of law".
Again, on August 29 last year, America sanctioned five Ugandan officials, including Parliament Speaker Anita Among, for their alleged involvement in corruption or gross violations of human rights.
Locals say government soldiers commandeered boats to flee across Lake Tanganyika while a local prison was emptied.
"Whenever they impose sanctions, the US and the European Union expect countries to abide by them. If you don't, you face penalties," Uganda's minister for foreign affairs, Henry Oryem Okello, told a parliamentary committee on January 14.
The discussion centred on the East African country contemplating shielding itself from the possibility of a US-imposed asset freeze by shoring up its gold reserves through artisanal miners in the country.
"We are in the process of studying the strategy. A paper is being drafted for the Bank of Uganda to start procuring gold so that we have significant gold reserves within the country instead of parking everything abroad," Okello said.
Uganda currently has about US $4 billion of foreign reserves cushioning the country's GDP. "We stand the risk of the US freezing all that money, in which case we will be finished as a country," the minister said.
Algeria stands up to France
In North Africa, Algeria is battling newly imposed French sanctions for refusing to receive certain illegal nationals expelled from France.
France threatens to pull the plug on some privileges, including entry, residency, and employment, as accorded to Algerians following agreements signed in 1968. This was six years after Algeria's independence from France.
Algeria's ministry of foreign affairs says the country won't accept to be "addressed with ultimatums, warnings or threats".
Algeria is also demanding accountability for colonial atrocities, especially the 1961 massacre of Algerians by France during its struggle for independence.
"Sanctions should be the last resort. Dialogue and diplomacy are the preferred way to resolve conflicts peacefully because the impact of sanctions is felt the most by citizens of the target countries," Nuur Mohamud Sheekh, an analyst and former spokesperson for the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, tells TRT Afrika.
