The Kingdom of Belgium refuses to accredit Mr. Vincent Karega as the new ambassador of Rwanda to Belgium. In March 2023, Rwanda appointed Vincent Karega as the new ambassador to Brussels, nearly five months after his expulsion by the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Nearly five months after his expulsion from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, former Rwandan ambassador to Kinshasa, Vincent Karega, is once again assigned to a diplomatic post, this time in Belgium. However, according to information gathered by Jambonews from Rwandan diplomatic sources, Belgium has refused to grant accreditation to Vincent Karega.
According to Jambonews, human rights and democracy promotion organizations in Belgium had sent a letter on April 9, 2023, to the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressing concerns about the appointment of Mr. Vincent Karega as ambassador. They highlighted Mr. Karega’s controversial past as an ambassador in South Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he was accused of targeting political opponents and Rwandan refugees.
In his posting in Kinshasa from July 2020, the diplomat, a native of the Congolese province of North Kivu, saw relations with the DRC deteriorate rapidly when, in late 2021, the M23 rebel group launched its offensive in the east of the country, allegedly supported by Kigali, a claim consistently denied by Rwanda.
Prior to his tenure in the DRC, Vincent Karega served for eight years in Pretoria. This period was marked by reciprocal expulsions of diplomats in 2014, with South African authorities accusing Rwandan envoys of being involved in attacks on its soil against opponents of President Paul Kagame’s regime, allegations that the Rwandan government has always denied.
