S1947/456119 Administration www.africa-confidential.com 10 September 2020 - Vol 61 - N° 18 - online edition RWANDA BLUE LINES As President Nana Akufo- Exile flies into a trap Addo becomes chairman of the Economic Community of West African States and the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area prepares to start The celebrated hotel manager turned regime opponent was flown to arrest in Kigali by operations in Accra, it’s a bad time the President’s favourite charter jet company for Ghana to get into a trade row with Nigeria. aul Rusesabagina, the real- to arrive to their destinations well rested The roots of the current froideur life character behind the 2004 and ready for whatever awaits them.’ are in Nigeria’s closure of all its P Hollywood movie Hotel Rwanda, Africa Confidential called Gainjet’s land borders a year ago, which has ended up on show in Kigali in handcuffs operations personnel several times and left slowed trade along the West African on 4 September raising myriad questions a message but received no reply. Gainjet is seaboard, with some Ghanaian of international law as President Paul yet to explain whether it knew the identity companies blaming the move for Kagame’s government faces mounting of its passenger and whether Rusesabagina production cuts and bankruptcies. regional opposition. boarded the flight to Kigali voluntarily. Ghana sympathised with Nigeria’s Athens-based Gainjet, regularly used immediate neighbours – Benin, by Kagame, owns the Challenger 605 long- FREQUENT TRAVELLER Niger and Cameroon – which range business jet, registration SX-FSA, Gainjet has taken President Kagame all argued the border closure defied which flew Rusesabagina out of Dubai just over the world. Their relationship goes the single-market principle of after midnight on 28 August, arriving in back at least to 2012 when Kagame flew in Ecowas. In January, Akufo-Addo Kigali just before 6am. a Gainjet Gulfstream 450 to Luton airport, proposed negotiations but these A long-time political opponent of in southern England, to attend a summit made little progress against Kagame’s government, Rusesabagina will on family planning alongside the then the economic pressures of the be tried for acts of terrorism committed United Kingdom Prime Minister David coronavirus pandemic. by groups Kigali claims were under his Cameron, Uganda’s President Yoweri A few months later, a bizarre control. Piecing together a picture drawn Museveni and the US philanthropist incident in which a land dispute from President Kagame’s statements at Melinda Gates. resulted in a private contractor a 6 September press conference with That plane appeared to be a favourite demolishing a building in Nigeria’s speculation by members of Rusesabagina’s with Kagame, who used it to attend the diplomatic compound in Accra inner circle and experts familiar with World Economic Forum in Davos in further poisoned relations. That intelligence service methods, the January 2014 and again in March to go amplified longer-held grievances indications are that Rusesabagina did not to Ireland, according to plane-spotters. by Nigerian traders in Ghana, know he was entering the lion’s den when It also took him to South Africa in July which forbids all foreign nationals he boarded the aircraft. 2018 for the meeting of the Brazil-Russia- from operating retail businesses Whether Rusesabagina, who is in India-China-South Africa (BRICS) group. unless they invest US$1 million poor health after receiving chemotherapy Since June this year Gainjet has flown in the country, a sum beyond the treatment in the United States, was five return trips to Kigali, the most recent means of most Nigerian traders. tricked into getting onto the plane hired being from Kigali to Moscow on 22 August As tensions grew, more Nigerian by the Rwandan government or was and back again on 30 August. Other Gainjet businesses have been closed forcibly abducted is irrelevant according aircraft, including the one Rusesabagina down in Ghana. Some traders to laws governing rendition of suspects. boarded, have flown to Kigali before. fear that getting tough with big Photos on Gainjet’s website show the Gainjet was founded in 2006 by Ramsey brother Nigeria could become Challenger has a ‘luxuriously appointed Shaban, the former chief pilot of Iraqi an issue in Ghana’s elections in and spacious interior’, and a range of 4,600 Airways. The company flew its Boeing December, militating against an miles. Ironically, in the circumstances, 757 from Washington to Dublin, then on early settlement. Gainjet stresses that ‘passengers are sure to Benghazi on 2 August at the height of SOUTH AFRICA 2 SOUTH AFRICA 3 MALAWI 5 NIGERIA 7 ETHIOPIA 8 BURKINA FASO 10 How to defend Cyril wins a Shaky start for Building back Property of Asempa Limited the indefensible battle over graft the new broom bigger COVID-19 11 If Ace Magashule isn’t caught With backing from ANC President Chakwera’s Planning to spend 20 billion POINTERS 12 up in a prosecution, the leaders, the President can fight against corruption is dollars on grand projects, President’s clean-up could make good on his pledge to popular but concerns are the Buhari government be stopped in its tracks prosecute rogue officials growing about nepotism taking on more debt Prepared for Beate Adolf on 11/09/2020 at 08:43. Authorized users may download, save, and print articles for their own use, but may not further disseminate these articles in their electronic form without express written permission from Africa Confidential / Asempa Limited. Contact [email protected]. S1947/456119 Administration rendition, saying that all who boarded one with links to groups engaged in AFRICA CONFIDENTIAL the aircraft did so voluntarily. This attacks within Rwanda itself, especially 37 John’s Mews, London WC1N 2NS, UK begs the question, however, as to what close to the border with Burundi (AC Vol Tel: 44(0)20 7831 3511 international cooperation there was 59 No 16). Over the past year, we hear, Editor: Patrick Smith Deputy Editor: Andrew Weir if nothing untoward happened on the a third of the Rwandan Defence Force Website Editor: Juliet Amissah ground in Dubai. has been deployed to protect that border Published fortnightly since 1960 Kigali has not published the warrant with Burundi. 25 issues per year it referred to, but it issued one in 2010 The East African, a regional www.africa-confidential.com which led to an unsuccessful extradition newspaper, briefly interviewed Proprietors: Asempa Ltd. ISSN 0044-6483 attempt and court hearings in Belgium. Rusesabagina in custody by phone on 7 All material is copyright Africa Confidential A court then heard that Kigali accused September. Asked about his activities, Rusesabagina of financing theForces he said: ‘I formed my own political US discussions with Libyan National Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda party PDR-Ihumure to promote justice’. Army commander Khalifa Haftar about (FDLR), the mainly Hutu exile group in When asked about ‘innocent victims’ of a ceasefire with the Tripoli government. Congo-Kinshasa thought to comprise armed action in southern Rwanda by a Rusesabagina had arrived in Dubai the remnants of the forces that group which was recently formed by a on a direct Emirates flight from Chicago committed the 1994 genocide. The merger of PDR-Ihumure and two others, at 18.45 local time on 27 August and Paris-based Jeune Afrique publication he was reported to say, ‘I’m sorry as a stayed for a few hours in a hotel, reported it had sight of a 14-page responsible person, but everyone has to according to a United Arab Emirates warrant issued against Rusesabagina in be responsible for his actions.’ official who spoke to the broadcaster November 2018 in which he was accused In his press conference President CNN, before boarding the Challenger at of ‘constitution of an illegal armed Kagame claimed that groups Al Maktoum airport, one of Dubai’s two group’, and six further violations of Rusesabagina led had killed people international airports. No information Rwandan law including murder, armed in three districts in the south-west. has emerged about who was also on the robbery, ‘incitement to insurrection’ In what’s generally been taken as an aircraft apart from the Gainjet pilot and and arson. allusion to Rusesabagina being caught co-pilot. Media reports say his family Last year, Rusesabagina’s house in in a sting operation, Kagame said, ‘how and friends did not know why he was in Belgium was searched by local police in he got here was more about himself than Dubai except for ‘meetings’. the presence of his lawyer and officials anyone else... if you feed somebody a Rwanda never publicly announced from the Rwandan embassy. Nothing false story that fits well in the narrative where Rusesabagina’s flight to Kigali incriminating was found at the time. of what he wants to be and he follows originated, although it claimed it Rusesabagina has been under attack it and he finds himself in a case like received international co-operation by the Rwandan government ever since that...’ When asked if Rusesabagina and that there was an international Hotel Rwanda was released. He became a was kidnapped or tricked, Kagame said, warrant out for him. The fact that critic of Kagame before leaving for exile ‘Kidnap was not the case. Rusesabagina UAE officials spoke anonymously to in Belgium in 1996. He later called for will attest to that himself.’ He drew CNN invited speculation that they Kagame’s overthrow. His name has been an analogy: what had happened to wanted to distance the country from linked to more than one exile group Rusesabagina was like him ‘calling the any suggestion of involvement in a operating in eastern Congo-K, including wrong number’.