Arsenal to end partnership with Visit Rwanda

PARIS: Premier League leaders Arsenal will end their partnership deal with Rwanda at the end of this season, the African country’s development board announced on Wednesday.

The Visit Rwanda partnership, signed eight seasons ago, had increasingly come under scrutiny due to spiralling violence in mineral-rich eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, which borders Rwanda.

The DRC accuses Rwanda of arming and supporting the M23 militia, which has seized swathes of DRC territory since taking up arms in 2021. The conflict has killed thousands of people and triggered a humanitarian crisis, although the DRC and M23 have signed a ceasefire deal and peace framework in recent months.

Arsenal fans in April protested against the ongoing partnership, which involves the Visit Rwanda logo being carried on the sleeves of the players’ jerseys. “Arsenal and the Rwanda Development Board have mutually agreed to conclude their partnership at the end of this season, bringing to a close an eight-season collaboration that included Visit Rwanda as Arsenal’s first Official Sleeve Partner,” the Rwanda Development Board said in a statement. Rwanda still has other partnerships with European giants Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich and with Atletico Madrid.