Kigali: I know how to recognize idiots, this man Tshisekedi who causes problems between Rwanda and the DRC has never been elected, twice (Paul Kagame to ambassadors)
Rwandan President Paul Kagame met Thursday with diplomats, accredited to Kigali, for lunch. Commenting on the situation in eastern Congo, Rwanda being accused of having sent its troops there to support the M23, he said he knew how to recognize leaders but also idiots. Mr. Kagame did not mince words. He said it is President Félix Tshisekedi who is at the root of the problems between the two countries of the Great Lakes of Africa and Tshisekedi has never been elected, twice – which everyone knows, according to the Rwandan president. He also mentioned the support of the Congolese and Burundian authorities for the Hutu-FDLR genocidaires, calling on world powers to pull themselves together.
INFO SOS Médias Burundi
The Congolese crisis was invited to this lunch and President Kagame could not have been more precise in his examples on the distant causes of the conflicts between Rwanda and the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo). He recalled that following the delimitation of the borders during the colonial period, some Rwandophone communities found themselves in Congo but also in Uganda. In this country, a large part of the southwest district is populated by people who speak Kinyarwanda, Rwandans even whose relatives live in Rwanda, he insisted.
“But this has never been a source of conflict between Rwanda and Uganda”.
Idiots
“I know leaders when I see them. I also know idiots. You can imagine the combination of the two – the disaster it makes. If you are a leader and an idiot, it is a disaster. An absolute disaster. It is even very bad, even very dangerous, if the same people who hold power in their hands, decide that they will be manipulated, for certain interests, by idiots”, declared Paul Kagame referring to the Congolese crisis and the initiatives that have been put in place to resolve it.
Inertia of the international community
For the Rwandan president, it is a shame to have a UN force in Congo for three decades and to continue to face the threat of the genocidal Hutus-FDLR (Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) that the UN force was supposed to eradicate.
“Can you explain to me why the FDLR are in Congo and are being helped by the government of Congo which also brought Burundi under the same ideology, supposedly to fight the M23 which is of Tutsi ethnicity and therefore linked to Kagame…they do not have the right to live, they must be gotten rid of! You leave that intact and you come to complain about the probable presence of the Rwandan army in Congo! What do you really think you are talking about?” he addressed the ambassadors.
Firmness

Paul Kagame, Rwandan President and First Lady Jeannette Kagame during lunch with ambassadors accredited in Kigali, January 16, 2025, credit: Account X (Formerly Twitter) of the Rwandan presidency
Paul Kagame also returned to the reports of the UN experts “biased from the start”. He warned all those who produce these reports and make threats against his country.
“We have not been there. We have paid the highest price of our life – this genocide … We can suffer by all means but we will never, never ever return to pay the same price that we paid 30 years ago. No matter how powerful someone is. Unless Rwanda is wiped off the map, otherwise we will not give an inch”, hammered Mr. Kagame.
Question of life or death
Rwandan President Paul Kagame announced that he cannot afford to behave like everyone else in the current situation where a conflict pits his country against Congo.
“It affects you the least, but it affects me the most. I can’t afford to behave the way you want me to behave in the face of this problem, I can’t,” he clarified.
And he continued: “It’s a matter of life and death for me and for my people. For you, it’s something you can discuss, you can give instructions at the same time as you play football, tennis or golf. It’s that simple for you. But for me, just a wink at the wrong time, it’s a matter of life and death for me.” “We are not the same old idiots you rubbed shoulders with 50 years ago, not at all,” he insisted.
Tshisekedi has never been elected, twice
According to Paul Kagame, even if people do not say it publicly, everyone knows that Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi has never been elected, twice.
“So people tell us that they want democracy everywhere, they encourage elections… the person who is causing problems in this situation that I am talking about, between Rwanda and the DRC, has never been elected, twice. And you know it. That is why I said: no matter the evidence, the facts, the assertion, it is only what benefits you that counts, the rest you do not care about. This man Tshisekedi was never elected the first time, the second time, nothing happened and you know it”, Paul Kagame affirmed in front of the ambassadors accredited in Kigali.
The M23 is a former Tutsi rebellion that took up arms again at the end of 2021, accusing the Congolese authorities of not having respected their commitments on the reintegration of its fighters. The Congolese authorities remain convinced that it benefits from support from Rwanda, something that the Rwandan government continues to dismiss out.
Since June 2022, this armed group has controlled a major part of the North Kivu province in eastern Congo, including the city of Bunagana, on the border with Uganda, where it has set up its headquarters and a parallel administration.
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Rwandan President Paul Kagame addresses ambassadors accredited in Kigali, he said that it is President Felix Tshisekedi who is causing problems between Rwanda and the DRC, credit: Account X (Formerly Twitter) of the Rwandan presidency
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