After his June 12 appointment as minister of foreign affairs, Amb Olivier Nduhungirehe, 49, who was until then Rwanda's envoy to The Netherlands, posted on X to "express my deep gratitude" to President Paul Kagame "for the trust placed in me to serve as Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Republic of Rwanda."
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Amb Nduhungirehe noted that he committed to use his diplomatic and political experience, "as well as my energy to strengthen Rwanda's bilateral and multilateral relations, building on the tremendous achievements of his predecessor, Dr Vincent Biruta, and "of the whole @RwandaMFA family."
I express my deep gratitude to H.E President @PaulKagame for the trust placed in me to serve as Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Republic of Rwanda.I commit to use my diplomatic and political experience, as well as my energy to strengthen... https://t.co/rwc6a4ovwx-- Olivier J.P. Nduhungirehe (@onduhungirehe) June 12, 2024
Nduhungirehe had a telephone call with his Tanzanian counterpart January Makamba on Thursday, June 13, in which the latter congratulated him on being entrusted by President Kagame for "this important role" as well as committed to work closely together to strengthen relations between "our friendly countries."
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Nduhungirehe thanked Makamba for his call, and warm wishes, and added: "Tanzania and Rwanda are indeed friendly countries, and I highly value our relations and economic ties. I pledged to work with you to strengthen those relations, as well as our East African Community (EAC)."
With presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for next month, Nduhungirehe must hit the ground running.
He, especially, has a lot of work considering that his country is increasingly, according to analysts, becoming a subject of intense scrutiny and criticism in Western media.
Politically motivated campaign to smear Rwanda
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The Government of Rwanda on May 28 dismissed a politically motivated media campaign by a journalists' organisation called Forbidden Stories, which released a series of stories to smear Rwanda's image.
"For several days this month, government officials and Rwandan citizens have been pestered by politically motivated campaigners planning a series of media hit pieces on Rwanda," the Office of the Government Spokesperson said in a statement.
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The statement said Forbidden Stories series intended to disrupt the presidential and legislative elections due in July. In a similar vein, the government statement noted, along Rwanda's western border, in the conflict in eastern DR Congo, there is a parallel attempt to protect the genocidal militia FDLR, in the hopes of hurting Rwanda and in support of the open call for 'regime change' by Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi.
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The Rwandan government noted that the objective would not materialise, thanks to the strong unity and accountable political system that Rwandans have built over the years. "Rwanda's democratic processes will continue, and Rwandans will make their choices about who they want to lead them into the future, peacefully and confidently," concluded the statement.
DR Congo's minister of defence Guy Kabombo repeated Tshisekedi's threats to attack Rwanda, on Tuesday, June 11. In a post on X, Kabombo said that Tshisekedi had given "guidance" on the operations of the Congolese army, including "the annexation of Rwanda".
The Congolese president has, on various occasions, threatened to attack Rwanda, which he accuses of supporting the M23 rebels in eastern DR Congo. Rwanda dismisses the allegations and denounces the collaboration between the Congolese army and the FDLR, a militia linked to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
The FDLR, a UN sanctioned genocidal group based in eastern DR Congo for close to three decades, was formed by the masterminds of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. The FDLR is at the heart of the insecurity affecting eastern DR Congo.
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But who is Rwanda's new foreign minister, a man who is going to exclusively or primarily be responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs, among other things, during and after the upcoming elections?
Born in Huye District, in September 1975, he speaks fluent Kinyarwanda, French and English.
The father of two has held various diplomatic positions over the past 17 years.
Nduhungirehe is a senior member of the Social Democratic Party (PSD).
He served as the political party's first vice president before he became an ambassador, in 2020, and handed the post to MP Valens Muhakwa, the chairperson of the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee, in the lower house, to concentrate on his new diplomatic duties. His party, PSD, is the country's second largest political party after the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF-Inkotanyi).
Serving as Rwanda's top envoy, in The Netherlands, since November 2020, Nduhungirehe is, among other individual qualities, articulate, and passionate about Rwanda.
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As Ambassador of Rwanda in The Hague, he has also been in charge of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), The Hague Conference of Private International Law (HCCH), and the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC).
From September 2017 to April 2020, the new Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, was Minister of State in the same ministry, in charge of the East African Community (EAC). Before then, from December 2015 to September 2017, he was Rwanda's envoy in Brussels, having jurisdiction over the Kingdom of Belgium, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the European Union (EU), the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States, and the World Customs Organization (WCO).
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Prior to that, for about six months, from May 2015, he served as Acting Director General in charge of Multilateral Cooperation in the ministry of foreign affairs.
From August 2010 to May 2015, Nduhungirehe was the First Counsellor, then Minister Counsellor and Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN in charge of the UN Security Council, in New York. Earlier, between March 2007 and August 2010, he served as First Counsellor at the Embassy of Rwanda to Ethiopia, and the Permanent Mission to the African Union, in Addis Ababa.
Prior to his diplomatic career, he served as Personal Assistant to the Minister of State in charge of industry and investment promotion in the Ministry of Trade and Industry (November 2004 - June 2005), Personal Assistant to the Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources (June 2005 - August 2005) and member of the Business Law Reform Cell (August 2005 - January 2007).
The Business Law Reform Cell was tasked to reform administrative and business laws in order to attract investments in Rwanda.
During that period, he was also a part-time lecturer in various universities in Rwanda, teaching Tax Law, Social Law and Economic and Financial Law.
Nduhungirehe holds a Masters degree in Tax Management from the Solvay Business School of the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB, Belgium) and a Bachelor of Law from the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL, Belgium).
