KINSHASA, DRC – The Democratic Republic of Congo has called on Arsenal, Bayern Munich and Paris St-Germain to end their “blood stained” sponsorship deals with Visit Rwanda amid a worsening humanitarian crisis in the country.
The appeal comes as M23 rebels captured Goma, the largest city in eastern DR Congo, while the United Nations’ refugee agency estimates more than 400,000 people have been forced from their homes this year.
A group of UN experts maintains the Rwandan army is in “de fact to control of M23 operation”.
DR Congo’s Foreign Minister Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner has written to the owners of Arsenal and PSG and to Bayern president Herbert Hainer to “question the morality” of the deals.
She highlighted how Visit Rwanda’s sponsorship could be funded by the illicit mining of blood minerals in the occupied parts of DR Congo, before being transported across the border and exported from Rwanda.
In her letter to Arsenal, Kayikwamba Wagner stated that Rwanda’s “culpability” for the ongoing conflict “has become incontrovertible” after the UN reported that 4,000 Rwandan troops are active in the DRC.
“It is time Arsenal ended its blood-stained sponsorship deals with this oppressor nation. If not for your own consciences, then the clubs should do it for the victims of Rwandan aggression,” she wrote.
Arsenal, PSG, Bayern Munich and Visit Rwanda have been contacted for comment.
