Dear Doja Cat,
The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) has learned of your plans to perform in Kigali, Rwanda on March 17, 2026, as part of the Move Afrika tour. This event is part of a broader initiative to stage a series of international music festivals across the African continent, with Kigali serving as the tour’s anchor city, in partnership with the Rwanda Development Board.
We are aware of your commitment to promoting human rights globally, including in Africa. At the Global Citizen Festival 2024, you made a commendable plea for action to support people in conflict-affected areas, including the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It is precisely because of this commitment that we wish to caution you against performing in Rwanda. While this may be unbeknownst to you, your appearance in Kigali will benefit Paul Kagame’s 31-year-old dictatorship by helping deflect attention from Rwanda’s bloody war in Congo and its brutal record of repression at home. Following musical artist Tems’ example in 2025, we urge you to cancel your concert in Kigali to stand in solidarity with the people of the DRC.
The Rwandan regime supports and deploys its own troops alongside the March 23 Movement (M23), a rebel group sanctioned by both the US and UN. With Rwanda’s backing, M23 has been linked to serious human rights violations in the DRC, including the killing of civilians, the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war, and the recruitment of child soldiers. Since 2022, the rebel group has taken control and occupied large areas of eastern DRC, spreading terror and fueling mass displacement of local civilians. M23’s capture of the city of Goma in January 2025 resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people. The rebel group is also responsible for violently and illicitly plundering strategic mineral resources for the benefit of the Rwandan regime.
On March 2, 2026, the United States imposed sanctions on the Rwandan army and four senior officials for violating the Washington Accords, a DRC-Rwanda peace agreement signed in December 2025. The sanctions were linked to the military’s backing of an M23 military offensive carried out days after the signing of the agreement in the city of Ulvira, where more than 170 bodies have since been found in mass graves.
Rwanda is a tyrannical police state that maintains its grip on power through fear, strict information control, mass surveillance, forced disappearances, imprisonment of critics, assassinations, and the systematic suppression of any form of dissent. In 2020, Kagame’s regime kidnapped and arbitrarily imprisoned Paul Rusesabagina — a US permanent resident and the real-life hotel manager depicted in the Hollywood film “Hotel Rwanda” — for more than 900 days, due to his public criticism of Kagame. The regime also planted spyware on the phones of his daughter Carine Kanimba, also a US citizen. Don Cheadle and the cast of “The Avengers” joined the campaign for Rusesabagina’s release and his return to his home in San Antonio, Texas.
Paul Kagame has repeatedly used the two previous Move Afrika concerts in Kigali as opportunities for self-promotion, including by appearing on stage immediately before Kendrick Lamar’s 2023 performance, turning the event into a political rally. In the context of Rwanda’s authoritarian governance, art does not escape political control.
When John Legend headlined Move Afrika in Kigali last year, he sought to highlight African talent by wearing an outfit from Moshions, a Made-in-Rwanda brand founded by the groundbreaking queer fashion designer Moses Turahirwa. Two months after the concert, Rwandan security forces forcibly detained the designer following his public criticism of Kagame and the regime on social media. The regime routinely disguises its crackdowns on dissent as enforcement of other laws — Turahirwa was later charged with cannabis-related offenses.
While we applaud your intention to help drive lasting job opportunities and celebrate Africa’s creativity, we believe a thriving creative arts industry cannot meaningfully develop without creative and expressive freedom. Rwandan artists have faced imprisonment, prosecution, censorship, enforced disappearances, and death under suspicious circumstances for using their art and platforms to challenge injustices in the country. Do not allow Kagame to exploit your performance and leverage your presence and global influence to project a veneer of normalcy and legitimacy to the world, while concealing repression inside and outside Rwanda.
As a highly successful, influential, and socially conscious figure in the music industry — someone who has consistently championed human rights and social justice, notably through charity work with organizations like the American Red Cross and the Global Fund for Women — we urge you to refuse to share the stage with the warmongering dictator Kagame. We call on you to reconsider any collaboration with the Rwandan regime, thereby upholding the civil and artistic freedoms of the Rwandan people and setting a principled example in support of the people of Congo.
We are happy to provide more information on the topic and discuss alternative ways you can support the people of Congo and Rwanda.
Sincerely,
Nolwenn Mahé
Policy Adviser, Africa
Human Rights Foundation
