Paul Kagame the president of Rwanda has expressed his desire to run for the fourth term in office.
Presidential elections in the East African country is due to hold in the year 2024.
He had previously hinted that he could run for re-election, but this is the first time that he has categorically stated he will be a candidate in next year’s poll scheduled for August.
The 65-year old has been the dominant force in Rwanda since his then-rebel group, the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), came to power at the end of the genocide.
But he only became president in 2000 following the resignation of Pasteur Bizimungu.
In 2003, Rwanda adopted a new constitution giving the president a seven-year tenure renewable once.
“Yes, I am indeed a candidate,” Kagame, who has ruled over the country with an iron fist for decades, told Jeune Afrique, a French-language news magazine, in an interview published online on Tuesday.
Asked about what the West would think about his decision to run again, Mr Kagame told Jeune Afrique that “what these countries think is not our problem”.
“I am pleased with the confidence that Rwandans have placed in me. I will always serve them, as long as I can,” the 65-year-old was quoted as saying.
The Rwandan government in March decided to synchronise the dates for its parliamentary and presidential elections, which are due to be held in August next year.
Kagame had previously not made his intentions clear, but has presided over controversial constitutional amendments that allowed him to serve a third term.
A former rebel chief, Kagame has been regarded as the country’s de facto leader since the end of the 1994 genocide.
He won a third term in 2017, taking home nearly 99 percent of the vote.
In 2015, Kagame amended Rwanda’s constitution which could see him rule up until year 2034.