Formula 1 claims it will host a grand prix in Rwanda at some time in the “early 2030s”.

But reader Ibex says this is another example of motorsport being used by a country to deflect attention from its unsavoury reputation:

We have not forgotten that (for example) Bahrain handed out 20-year prison sentences to doctors for treating people injured in the 2011 protests. And that the UAE is currently backing the RSF in Sudan, who have slaughtered thousands of civilians and committed countless war crimes. And this year’s Azerbaijan GP was moved to Saturday not because Sunday commemorated the end of a war, but marked the day of the Azerbaijan offensive which started the war and to celebrate the ethnic cleansing that war achieved. (Just a few examples.)

[…] As well as murdering and torturing Rwandans (at home and abroad), Paul Kagame’s government is the backer of M23 in neighbouring Congo which for a decade and a half has been fighting for control of Congo’s mineral riches and committing countless war crimes. If there’s any country which deserves a break from endless armed conflict, it surely has to be the unfortunate people of the Congo.

Even if Rwanda is no worse than a number of current F1 host countries, adding yet another offender to the list does nothing to improve the situation.

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Formula 1 announces it will race in Rwanda from “early 2030s”

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