Government Spokesperson Yolande Makolo and UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy. Rwanda’s says the UK must pay up for breach of trust.
The United Kingdom did not formally terminate the UK-Rwanda Migration and Economic Partnership (MEDP) before cancelling the agreement to transfer illegal migrants and asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing.
As a result, the Government of Rwanda is seeking compensation and damages for breach of contract.
Government Spokesperson Yolande Makolo, has also confirmed that the UK, which recently cancelled development support to Rwanda, has asked Rwanda to quietly forgo the dues the European nation owed it “based on the trust and good faith existing between our two nations,” Makolo posted on the social media platform X.
She pointed out that the UK was the first to do the opposite by imposing unfair measures on Rwanda over the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in a one-sided decision that ignores the context of the conflict and the existential security threat Rwanda faces.
“The UK has breached this trust through the unjustified punitive measures to coerce Rwanda into compromising our national security & by the inflammatory and irresponsible comments made in Parliament by Lord Collins, UK Minister for Africa. We are therefore following up on these funds, to which the UK is legally bound,” Makolo confirmed.
Rwanda is demanding £50m from the UK over the cancelled agreement, which the new Labour government stopped but failed to formally terminate, despite announcing its discontinuation after winning the general election last year.
It is the latest development in the deteriorating ties between the two countries, following the measures announced last week and a gaffe by UK lawmaker Lord Collins, in which he claimed that Rwanda was linked to the Ugandan DR Congo armed group, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), which angered Rwanda.
Lord Collins would later apologise and retract the remarks made in the House of Lords.
Now, Rwanda has sent a formal notification invoicing the Government for the £50 million it originally agreed to forgo when Labour announced it was scrapping the agreement after winning the election.
Rwanda confirmed that the UK, up to now, has not formally terminated the agreement, which to Rwanda is equivalent to a breach of trust.
The UK, which fell for the DRC’s anti-Rwanda campaign, has threatened further sanctions, but Rwanda maintains it cannot scale down its security measures, amid threats from the DRC and the FDLR in close proximity.
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy has been at the forefront of taking punitive measures against Rwanda, even threatening to influence other countries to follow suit, in what appears to be a witch-hunt targeting the Rwandan Government.
On the other hand, Lord Collins, the UK Minister for Africa, is accused by Rwanda of making comments which misled the public and further fuelled the DRC’s anti-Rwanda propaganda campaign.
The DRC government has particularly made the UK its playground in its campaign, with officials appearing in London to make allegations targeting Rwanda and calling for sanctions.
The agreement between Rwanda and the UK would have involved cooperation activities amounting to £700 million, including £290 million upfront that the Labour goverment scrapped in a snap decision.
At the time, Rwanda said it was up to the UK to end the deal, but now London has to pay up for the dues it owes Rwanda because the latter was not responsible for cancelling the agreement.
In the wake of the sanctions, Amb. Olivier Nduhungirehe, Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, says that sanctions and other punitive measures targeting the country are not solutions to the conflict, which has spanned more than three decades and requires a political solution.
He further stated that Rwanda would not be coerced into relaxing her own security measures over aid or any sort of development support.
Rwanda also accuses the international community of disregarding the actual causes of the conflict in the eastern part of the DRC, as well as the ethnic violence targeting Tutsi communities, for which the M23 is fighting.
