Arsenal Football Club has been accused of delivering an “outrageous” snub to the Congolese government by not meeting the foreign minister to discuss its sponsorship deal with Rwanda.
Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner, foreign minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), who was in London this week to raise concerns over Rwanda’s support for the M23 militia, said she attempted to meet Arsenal officials to discuss the club’s Visit Rwanda sponsorship deal.
However, Arsenal, one of the world’s most popular Premier League clubs with a large fanbase in Africa, chose not to respond, she said.
UN experts have said that 3,000 to 4,000 Rwandan government military personnel have operated alongside M23 in eastern DRC. However, Rwanda continues to deny its forces have crossed into the country and has repeatedly denied involvement in supporting the M23 rebels.
Wagner told the Guardian: “We offered to meet Arsenal, but they didn’t reach out or take us up on the offer. We have not received an answer. Apparently they are not interested in meeting us.”
A member of a Congolese diaspora group in London, who requested not to be named, said Arsenal’s response was an “outrageous insult” to what they said were “millions” of fans in a country the size of western Europe.
In contrast, another leading club with the same Rwandan sponsorship deal – Germany’s Bayern Munich – sent two employees to Rwanda to monitor the escalating situation and is in contact with the German foreign ministry.
Before Wagner arrived in London she urged the owners of Arsenal to end what she called its “bloodstained” deal with Visit Rwanda.
Arsenal’s current Visit Rwanda arrangement, which has been running since 2021, is believed to be worth £10m a year and will continue until next year. Visit Rwanda is an arm of the Rwanda Development Board, a government department.
Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame, is also head of its military.
Last week, the Guardian exposed the extent of Rwanda’s involvement in the M23 offensive, revealing that hundreds, possibly thousands, of its troops had been killed during clandestine missions in the Congo.
Rwandan troops led by the M23 recently seized the Congolese city of Goma, and are now moving south in an offensive that experts warn threatens to deepen a humanitarian catastrophe with about 700,000 people forced from their homes already this year.
Signs of a concerted international response to the crisis have been slow but on Thursday the European parliament urged the EU to freeze direct budget support for Rwanda until it breaks links with the M23 rebels.
The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, last month warned that Rwanda had put $1bn of global aid under threat by taking part in the invasion of the DRC. No funding, however, appears to have been withdrawn as yet.
Wagner said: “Condemnations and declarations have had a limited impact when it comes to curtailing President Kagame’s actions and ambitions.”
Wagner met Lammy and Africa minister Lord Collins of Highbury this week and said there was a “continuous conversation” in which she was pushing for action. “Different options are being analysed but I have not had a firm promise of what is to come.
“There is still an imperative for sanctions and firm action. We have a situation where a country is occupying another country and which is pillaging natural resources, is responsible for the killing of at least 3,000 civilians and also peacekeepers.
“The killing has to stop, the pillaging has to stop. The crooks have to leave the DRC.”
Another big European club – Paris St-Germain – is also under pressure because of its Visit Rwanda deal, with former DRC captain Youssouf Mulumbu asking it to reconsider its partnership.
This week, the DRC also urged Formula One to end talks with Rwanda over hosting a race, saying the sport risks having its brand “smeared by a bloodstained association”.
Arsenal’s deal with Visit Rwanda began in May 2018, when it signed a three-year deal with the Rwanda Development Board, followed by another in 2021.
Its logo appears on the shirt sleeves of Arsenal’s men’s, women’s and youth teams and can be seen on boards at the Emirates Stadium and on interview backdrops.
Part of the deal has seen past and present Arsenal players visit Rwanda, most notably during August 2022 when the club published footage on its channels of Ray Parlour and Robert Pires’ trip.
Arsenal did not respond to requests for comment.
