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Agence France-Presse

Rwanda’s all-powerful President Paul Kagame was sworn in on Sunday for a fourth term after sweeping to victory in elections last month with more than 99 per cent of the vote.
Several dozen heads of state and other dignitaries from African nations joined the inauguration ceremony at a packed 45,000-seat stadium in Kigali, where crowds had started gathering from the early morning.
Kagame took the oath of office before Chief Justice Faustin Ntezilyayo, pledging to “preserve peace and national sovereignty, consolidate national unity”.
The outcome of the July 15 poll was never in doubt for the iron-fisted Kagame, who has ruled the small African nation since the 1994 genocide, as de facto leader and then president.
He won 99.18 per cent of ballots cast to secure another five years in power, according to the National Electoral Commission.
Rights activists said the 66-year-old’s overwhelming victory was a stark reminder of the lack of democracy in Rwanda.

Only two candidates were authorised to run against him out of eight applicants, with several prominent Kagame critics barred.
Democratic Green Party leader Frank Habineza scraped into second place with 0.5 per cent of the vote against 0.32 per cent for independent Philippe Mpayimana.
Kagame is credited with rebuilding a ruined nation after the genocide, when Hutu extremists unleashed 100 days of vicious bloodletting targeting the Tutsi minority, killing around 800,000 people, mainly Tutsis but also Hutu moderates.
But rights activists and opponents say he rules in a climate of fear, crushing any dissent with intimidation, arbitrary detentions, killings and enforced disappearances.
Kigali is also accused of stoking instability in the east of its much larger neighbour the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Angola’s President Joao Lourenco, among those attending Sunday’s ceremony, was due to have private talks with Kagame on a DRC ceasefire deal, the Angolan presidency said.
Luanda brokered the agreement last month after a meeting between the foreign ministers of DRC and Rwanda, which is accused of backing the M23 rebel group fighting Kinshasa’s armed forces.
But on August 4, the day the deal was supposed to take effect, M23 rebels – who have seized territory in the east since launching a new offensive at the end of 2021 – captured a town on the border with Uganda.
With 65 per cent of the population aged under 30, Kagame is the only leader most Rwandans have ever known.
“I proudly cast my vote for president Kagame and made it a priority to be here today to witness this historic inauguration,” said Tania Iriza, a 27-year-old trader, one of the tens of thousands who turned out for the ceremony.
“His leadership has been transformative for our nation. Under his leadership, Rwanda has risen from our tragic past and forged a path towards prosperity, unity and innovation.”
Kagame has won every presidential election he has contested, each time with more than 93 per cent of the ballot.
In 2015, he oversaw controversial constitutional amendments that shortened presidential terms to five years from seven but reset the clock for the Rwandan leader, allowing him to potentially rule until 2034.


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Africa

Rwanda’s President Kagame sworn in for 4th term

Rwanda President Paul Kagame is seen on screen during the presidential inauguration ceremony in Kigali on Sunday. Photo: AFP

The bones of some of those killed as they sought refuge inside a Rwanda church are displayed in April as a memorial to thousands killed during the country’s 1994 genocide. Photo: AP

President of Rwanda Paul Kagame casts his ballot during the election in July. Photo: AFP

Landslide victory confirmed for Kagame in Rwanda presidential election

Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame prepares to cast his ballot in Kigali on July 15. On Monday, the electoral commission confirmed he has won a fourth term. Photo: Reuters

Supporters of Kagame dance during a campaign rally in Kigali, Rwanda. Photo: AP

Workers from the National Electoral Commission and polling agents count ballots in Kinyinya, Gasabo district of Kigali, Rwanda on July 15. Photo: Reuters

UK Conservatives planned to spend US$13 billion on Rwanda migrant scheme, minister says

A building in Kigali, Rwanda, that was intended to house migrants deported from the UK. Photo: AFP

UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper. Photo: PA Wire / dpa

Border officials help a woman on the beach at Dungeness on the southeast coast of England after being picked up at sea with other migrants while attempting to cross the English Channel from France. Photo: AFP

Rwanda commemorates 30 years since genocide

Eric Igiraneza reacts during an interview about his experiences of his mother rejecting him after he was born because she was raped during the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Photo: Reuters

Rwandan President Paul Kagame lights a memorial flame during a ceremony to mark the 30th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide on Sunday. Photo: AP

People wait at the Kigali Arena stadium on Sunday before the start of a commemoration ceremony marking the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. Photo: AFP

Newly-discovered skulls and bones of some of those killed as they sought refuge inside a church are displayed as a memorial to the hundreds of thousands killed during Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. Photo: AP

Bill Clinton, former President of the United States and Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa, talk during their arrival at events commemorating the 30th anniversary of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Photo: AFP

In Rwanda, new mass graves reveal cracks in reconciliation efforts 30 years after genocide

The monument of the Flame of Remembrance at the Nyanza Genocide Memorial Centre in Kigali. Photo: AFP

Family photographs of some of those who died hang in a display in the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre. Photo: AP

Men paint the main gate of the Nyanza Genocide Memorial Centre in Kigali ahead of the 30th commemoration of the 1994 genocide. Photo: AFP

Naphtal Ahishakiye, executive secretary of Ibuka, speaks with the Associated Press in Kigali. Photo: AP

Rwanda’s top fugitive who ‘financed’ genocide arrested in Paris after 25 years on the run

People in Nairobi look at a page of a newspaper in June 12, 2002 carrying the photograph of fugitive Felicien Kabuga. File photo: Reuters

General view of the apartment building where Rwanda genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga who has been known as the financier of the genocide, was arrested on May 16, 2020, in Asnières-sur-Seine, northwestern suburbs of Paris. - French police on May 16, 2020 arrested one of the last key suspects in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, describing him as its "financier" and one of the world's most wanted fugitives. Felicien Kabuga, once one of Rwanda's richest men, was living under a false identity in the Paris suburbs, the public prosecutor's office and police said in a joint statement. (Photo by FRANCOIS GUILLOT / AFP)

The belongings of some of those who were slaughtered as they sought refuge in the church are preserved in glass cases as a memorial to the thousands who were killed in and around the Catholic church during the 1994 genocide, inside the church in Ntarama, Rwanda Friday, April 5, 2019. Rwanda will commemorate on Sunday, April 7, 2019 the 25th anniversary of when the country descended into an orgy of violence in which some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred by the majority Hutu population over a 100-day period in what was the worst genocide in recent history. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Pictures of killed people donated by survivors are installed on a wall inside the Gisozi memorial in Kigali April 5, 2004 which depicts the country's 1994 genocide in which 800,000 Tutsi and politically moderate Hutus died. Rwandans hungry for justice demanded tougher efforts to track down and punish killers who carried out the 1994 genocide, saying there could be no reconciliation while suspects were still at large. REUTERS/Radu Sigheti

A woman carrying her child looks at the wall of victims' names as Rwanda marks the 25th Commemoration of the 1994 Genocide at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Kigali, Rwanda, on April 8, 2019. - Rwanda on April 7, 2019 began 100 days of mourning for more than 800,000 people slaughtered in a genocide that shocked the world, a quarter of a century on from the day it began. (Photo by Yasuyoshi CHIBA / AFP)

News

World

Rights activists said the 66-year-old’s overwhelming victory was a stark reminder of the nation’s lack of democracy


Rights activists said the 66-year-old’s overwhelming victory, with more than 99 per cent of the vote, was a stark reminder of the nation’s lack of democracy.
