Allegations of sportswashing – hosting sporting events to improve a country’s international reputation – have long been levelled against Rwanda.
Securing an F1 race is part of the country’s wider strategy to increase tourism, international investment, services and entertainment.
The country has hosted the Basketball Africa League finals in all but one year since 2021 and staged cycling’s World Road Championships last year, the first time the event had been held in Africa.
Visit Rwanda has either sponsored or had partnerships with Arsenal, Bayern Munich and Paris St-Germain, although its sleeve sponsorship of the Gunners ended this year after drawing criticism from supporter groups.
However, the tourism brand then became the front-of-shirt sponsor of fellow Premier League club Aston Villa.
Meanwhile, Rwanda’s central African neighbour, the Democratic Republic of Congo, has filed a case against the country at the International Court of Justice, accusing it of breaching multiple international treaties covering genocide prevention, racial discrimination, women’s rights and torture.
Human Rights Watch previously said that “the space for freedom of expression” and “political autonomy” is shrinking in the country.
“Rwanda is buying into the world’s biggest sports to polish its image and deflect from its appalling human rights record,” said Amnesty International UK’s head of campaigns Felix Jakens.
“A 10-year Grand Prix ‘presented by Visit Rwanda’ is a sportswashing prize for the Rwandan authorities.”
The Rwandan government has dismissed such accusations, with chief tourism officer Irene Murerwa calling them “a distraction’ from the “amazing and outstanding achievements the country has made” when previously challenged by BBC Sport Africa.
“The benefits trickle down to every Rwandan,” she said in December 2024. “Hosting F1 would be another step in our journey to becoming a world-class destination.”