The National Basketball Association (NBA) has officially confirmed that it removed Rwanda's army-funded basketball team, the Armée Patriotique Rwandaise (APR), from the Basketball Africa League (BAL) due to sanctions imposed by the US regime in March. This marks the first time the association has openly clarified the motives behind the club's sudden exclusion.

The development follows an inquiry by American senators Jeffrey Merkley and Marsha Blackburn, who pressured the league's leadership to rethink its partnership with the East African nation. The senators supposedly warned that the association risked becoming complicit in "sportswashing" by accepting financial backing from a foreign government allegedly implicated in serious human rights abuses.

Washington's administration previously enacted sweeping sanctions against the Rwandan defense ministry over claims that it supports the M23 rebel movement operating in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Although Kigali repeatedly denies these allegations, the mounting geopolitical pressure has directly impacted high-profile international sports competitions.

In response to the congressional inquiry, NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum stated that the APR club would remain barred from participation as long as the US sanctions stay in effect. Meanwhile, Rwanda continues its commercial arrangement with the league, hosting the BAL finals at the BK Arena in Kigali, despite ongoing protests from regional governments regarding these lucrative international image-cleansing campaigns.

Source: www.bbc.co.uk