Kagame denies secret deal with DRC

Rwandan President Paul Kagame has denied reaching a secret deal with Congolese President Laurent Kabila when the two leaders met in the western Kenyan town of Eldoret, at the invitation of Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi, earlier this month. “Can Kabila give me Mbuji-Mayi for nothing? Why do these Ugandans speculate? Why don’t they ask me?” Kagame asked in an interview with the South African independent weekly, the ‘Mail and Guardian’. The Rwandan president was reacting to Ugandan press reports that, in the event of a Zimbabwean withdrawal from the DRC, Kabila has offered Kagame the diamond town of Mbuji-Mayi in return for Rwanda assisting him against the Ugandan-backed Congolese rebel groups. Kagame told the South African newspaper that Kabila had agreed to deal “decisively” with the Rwandan Interahamwe militia. He said that he, in turn, had promised that if Kabila acted against both the Interahamwe and Mayi-Mayi militia forces, Rwanda would withdraw from the DRC.