<\/p>\n
Kagame made the remarks at the Africa Chief Executive Officer Forum 2026 in Kigali, arguing that sanctions often serve geopolitical and economic interests rather than justice.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Advocate Sipho Mantula, a Researcher at the Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs, spoke to Channel Africa on Friday on the historical use of sanctions.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mantula said sanctions have long been used by global actors such as the United Nations, the United States and the European Union. Mantula explained that measures include arms embargoes, restrictions on trade and targeted sanctions affecting travel and financial assets of individuals.<\/p>\n
Mantula noted that several African countries have experienced sanctions, including Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Guinea, South Sudan and Libya. Mantula said sanctions across the continent often emerge in contexts involving conflict, governance disputes or control over natural resources.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mantula linked Kagame\u2019s criticism to growing global interest in Africa\u2019s critical minerals, suggesting that competition over resources has intensified external pressure on African governments.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Responding to whether sanctions are justified, Mantula argued that sanctions are largely unjustified, describing sanctions as narrowly framed tools driven by foreign policy interests of powerful nations. Mantula said sanctions frequently harm ordinary citizens rather than political leaders, citing economic hardship in countries such as Zimbabwe and South Sudan.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":34573,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-34572","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Rwandan President Paul Kagame has criticised the growing use of international sanctions, describing sanctions as unfair, politically motivated and a tool used by powerful nations to pressure weaker countries, particularly in Africa.","published_date":"","news_description":"Rwandan President Paul Kagame has criticised the growing use of international sanctions, describing sanctions as unfair, politically motivated and a tool used by powerful nations to pressure weaker countries, particularly in Africa.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34575,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34572\/revisions\/34575"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=34572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}