AfroAmerica Network

A Delegation of RUD-Urunana and RPR-Inkeragutabara Dependents Visits Rwanda in 2009

This week, Americans, including me, commemorated the 237th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. In public places and churches, and surely in private places, American sang their favorites songs, hymns, and the national anthem. In America the Beautiful, God Bless USA, or Star Spangled Banner, the theme of freedom rang in the singers’ ears:

In God Bless USA:
“That I’m proud to be an American,
where at least I know I’m free.
And I wont forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.”

In America the Beautiful:
“ America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain
The banner of the free!”

In the National Anthem Star Spangled Banner:
“Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,”

As I was joining others in singing and celebrating, my mind kept coming back to the theme :”That I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free”,  “thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand”, or “Till selfish gain no longer stain  The banner of the free”. As an American, I know what I am proud of.

As a Rwandan, I asked myself what I am proud of; then, what other Rwandans around the World [click to continue…]

A position of RUD-Urunana and RPR-Inkeragutabara near the Rwanda-DRC Border

According to the June 20, 2013 leaked report by the United Nations Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the rebels have been taking advantage of the chaos created by M23 Congolese rebels, supported and funded by Rwandan military and political leaders, to infiltrate Rwandan from the weakened and exposed western flank of the M23 positions. Some attacks were launched by 4 units known as “Commando de recherche et d’action en profondeur (CRAP)”. One CRAP unit operates from Nyamulagira and 3 others known as Canaan, Sinai and Ruhinda. These four CRAP units belong to Rwandan rebels known as FDLR-FOCA.
Other Rwandan rebels have also been crossing into Rwanda and have launched several attacks since May 2013, killing several RDF troops and seizing weapons and equipments. These rebels include the Rally for Unity and Democracy (RUD-Urunana), Rally for the Rwandan People (RPR-Inkeragutabara), and the PS-Imberakuri’s Common Front for the Liberation of Rwanda or Front Commun de Liberation du Rwanda (FCLR) (see here about PS_Imberakuri’s rebels.

In deploying towards the Rwandan border, the rebels have split into several groups. According to the UN Experts’s leaked report, [click to continue…]

FDLR Second Attack Map

FDLR First Attack Map

“Since M23 took control of the area along the border with Rwanda in Rutshuru territory, FDLR concentrated its troops adjacent to M23-controlled areas and carried out three attacks on Rwandan soil in late 2012 and mid-2013. FDLR officers told the Group that the objective of these attacks was to show the FDLR was not a dying force. The same sources stated that the incursions into Rwanda have boosted the morale of FDLR troops, and encouraged their leaders to plan other attacks,” UN Group of Experts said in a report written on June 20, 2013 leaked and of which AfroAmerica Network has received a copy.

The report, that focused mostly on the Congolese M23 rebels, has described in details the attacks by Rwandan rebels inside Rwanda. AfroAmerica Network was the first news medium to report on the first attack (see our article: Rwandan Rebels Attack RDF in Mutura; UN Expresses Intention to Sanction Rwandan Leaders of November 27, 2012). During the first attack, [click to continue…]

President Jakaya Kikwete and General Paul Kagame: Good old days

“Those people [Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete] you just heard siding with Interahamwe and FDLR  and urging negotiations… negotiations?  Me, I do not even discuss this topic, because I will just wait for you [Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete] at the right place and I will hit you! He[Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete]  did not deserve my answer. I did not waste my time answering him…It is well known. There is a line you cannot cross, there is a line, a line that you should never cross. It is impossible…”“
It is in these ominous terms that the Rwandan dictator General Paul Kagame threatened to get even with Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, while addressing Rwandan Youth on June 30, 2013 during a summit called “Youth Konnect”", sponsored by his wife, Janet Kagame.

Relations between Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete and Rwandan leaders have soured in the last weeks. On several occasions [click to continue…]

“Regionally, I thanked President Kikwete for Tanzania’s contribution to security, including its peacekeepers in Darfur and the Congo. On the Congo, we agreed that all parties need to implement their commitments under the Framework for Peace, that armed groups need to lay down their arms, and human rights abusers need to be held accountable. And I very much want to commend President Kikwete as well for the leadership role that he’s played in the Southern African Development Community on the issue of Zimbabwe,” President Obama told the audience on July 1, 2013 during his visit in Tanzania, East Africa.

Photo: President Obama showing a dance move upon his arrival in Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania on July 1, 2013

President Obama was on his last leg of the trip that took him to Senegal (see here), South Africa and Tanzania. His trip has highlighted the shifting view in the United States of America and the World that Africa will be the center of economical development for tomorrow. Hence, the USA is promoting a “new model that’s based not just on aid and assistance, but on trade and partnership.” President Obama put it well during his speech at the University of Capetown on June 30, 2013: [click to continue…]

US President Barack Obama Visits Goree Island in Senegal on June 27, 2013

“This is a testament to when we’re not vigilant in defense of human rights what can happen. Obviously, for an African-American, an African-American president, to be able to visit this site, I think, gives me even greater motivation in terms of human rights around the world,” US President Barack Obama said on June 27, 2013 while visiting the Goree Island off the coast of Senegal. Goree Island was one of the major, perhaps, departure point for bound, shackled and dehumanized slaves forced to leave Africa, their homeland, for America and other foreign lands, for a voyage of no return.

Photo: President Barack Obama visits Goree Island, Senegal on June 27, 2013

President Barack Obama said these worlds while stepping out into the “Door of No Return”, the last point for these slaves. In a touching moment, [click to continue…]

General Charles Kayonga has been dumped from the position of Rwandan Defense Forces (RDF)  Chief of  Defense Staff and was not assigned to any other position. The unceremonious firing was expected for quite some time after he was suspected of conspiring against Rwandan dictator General Paul Kagame.  He was replaced by the former UNAMID blue helmets commander, Lt General Nyamvumba, promoted to the rank of General.

Photo: Rwandan Defense Forces General Charles Kayonga.

The changes in the top military junta leading Rwanda have led to further  consolidation of power within the hands of a shrinking circle of  confidents around General Paul Kagame: permanent secretary in the Ministry of Defense and Rwandan President Kagame’s [click to continue…]

Rwandan long term opposition leader and ex-Prime Minister Faustine Twagiramungu did not return from his 10-year exile as he had promised. Officially, he said he was refused,  by the Rwandan government, a visa to return to his homeland.  Rwandan Government officials denied refusing him a visa and instead, through the government owned medias, called him an “ethnist bald-headed clown”, with others calling him an “eternal comedian” or a “joke”.

Photo: Faustine Twagiramungu running for Rwandan president office in September 2003

Since earlier this year, Faustine Twagiramungu has declared that he would soon, no later than end of June 2013,  return from exile and lead his political activities in Rwanda. A controversial political figure, he is the son-in-law of the first Rwandan post-independence President Gregoire Kayibanda. Until a couple of years before the  1990′s Rwandan civil war, [click to continue…]

On Tuesday June 18, 2013,  US Secretary of State John Kerry appointed  his former colleague at the United States Senate Russell “Russ” Feingold as the  new United States Special Representative for the African Great Lakes region and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).  A tireless advocate of peace in the African Great Lakes region in the US Senate, he has an extensive background in sub-saharan African  affairs and brings a wealth of  knowledge of the region. He chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs from 2001 to 2003 and 2007 to 2011.

Photo: Congolese refugees in Rwanda in March 2013 fleeing fightings among Rwandan government backed M23 rebel factions

US Secretary of State John Kerry assign mission to Russ Feingold: Disarm M23 rebels and push for political negotiation elsewhere.

Russ Feingold’s mission was outline by US Secretary State John Kerry when announcing the appointment:  [click to continue…]