Congo says UK is turning a blind eye to Rwanda atrocities

The president of the Democratic Republic of Congo has given an excoriating assessment of Britain’s migrant deal with Rwanda which, he claimed, was in exchange for silence on abuses by the regime of President Kagame.

President Tshisekedi described the Rwandan leader as a criminal, bloodthirsty dictator. “How can a country with great values like the United Kingdom compromise with such acquaintances?’’ he said in an interview coinciding with Suella Braverman’s first visit as home secretary to Rwanda to finalise the deal on deporting illegal migrants.

He accused Britain of “turning a blind eye” to Kagame’s abuses, undemocratic record and atrocities by his proxy army in the mineral-rich eastern Congo, an assessment jarringly different from Braverman’s description of Rwanda as “a beacon in the region