Rwanda: Unity Is Foundation for Rwanda's Development, Kagame Tells Global Security Forum

21 May 2024
The New Times (Kigali)
By Moise M. Bahati

President Paul Kagame has said that Rwandans' unity has been the foundation of the country's reconstruction and economic progress ever since after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

The President said this on Tuesday, May 21, as he virtually attended the 2024 Global Security Forum taking place in Doha, Qatar.

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Kagame reflected on the reconciliation journey from the 1994 Genocide and the fact that mass graves of its victims are still being discovered three decades later.

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"The society has been healing, and it's something we didn't expect that it would go this fast," Kagame said in a discussion with Steven Clemons.

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"We've been working together, trying to bring the country back together - the country that has been divided so badly, with people made to hate each other, and that is the life and the politics they got used to. But now it is the reverse of that, meaning we've tried to build unity and it is happening," he noted.

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"Of course, these incidents keep reminding us that, yes, there is that ugly past we've gone through," Kagame said. "We can't take that for granted. We have to make sure that the division to the extreme that led to the Genocide, as we had it in 1994, should never happen again. We can't allow it."

Asked about Rwanda's ability to attract foreign direct investment in critical sectors such as infrastructure, modern airports and as well as manufacturing of vaccines and pharmaceuticals, the President noted that all these are enabled by the unity of Rwandans.

"The foundation in this case, for us, is unity, and we are building on that foundation by investing in people," Kagame said.

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"We invest in human capital, we provide the goods for education, and health, and food security and bring in technology, and therefore going to these other industries that will make our economy, our country, vibrant and grow and develop."

Investment in the construction of a modern airport in Bugesera District, which is a collaboration with Qatar Airways, modernising the mining sector and investing in digital infrastructure adds value to all aspects of the economy, he said.

The Global Security Forum is an annual conference in which leaders discuss issues of global security and ways to address them.

Read the original article on New Times.

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