The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) sent a letter to Doja Cat, urging her to cancel her Move Afrika Tour’s dictator-sponsored Rwanda concert. It fits with an older post (2014!) on this topic: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2014/02/10/star-power-and-human-rights-a-difficult-but-doable-mix/
Doja Cat would be headlining a concert organized by Global Citizen in partnership with the regime of Rwanda’s warmongering dictator Paul Kagame, just two weeks after the US imposed sanctions on Rwanda’s army and senior Rwandan officials for their continued fuelling of a bloody war and humanitarian catastrophe in eastern DRC, in violation of a peace agreement brokered in December 2025.
Doja Cat’s appearance would offer Kagame an opportunity to grandstand and project a deceptive image of unity, progress and normalcy. It would be the perfect distraction from the sanctions, the prisons filled with Rwandan dissidents like opposition leader Victoire Ingabire, or Rwanda’s role in causing tremendous human suffering in DRC through its deployment of troops and support for the M23 militia — which is linked to massacres and rapes, forced recruitment and exploitation of civilians, and the use of child soldiers.
Doja Cat would follow John Legend, who headlined the 2025 #MoveAfrika Kigali concert amid public outcry. Legend performed after Nigerian Grammy-winning artist Tems canceled her concert over concerns after Rwandan troops and M23 seized eastern DRC’s two largest cities and imposed a reign of terror, exploitation, and plunder of strategic minerals.
Doja Cat has previously used her platform to advocate for vulnerable populations and has encouraged her audience to support civilians, women, and children fleeing violence, including in DRC. High-profile cultural events risk being used by Kagame’s regime to project an image of openness and legitimacy while political freedoms remain tightly restricted. In our letter, we urge Doja Cat to reconsider performing and to avoid allowing her platform to be used to legitimize a dictatorship which persecutes artists, crushes dissent, and continues to cause grave human suffering beyond its borders.
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 
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