For months now, a war of extermination has been waged on the Banyamulenge people in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is a war within the seemingly ceaseless wars  conspired  for  the grabbing of minerals that so far have claimed over six million Congolese lives as concluded by various studies ( see for example:https://www.caritas.org/2010/02/six-million-dead-in-congos-war )

The Banyamulenge who migrated to the East Congo from Rwanda in the  19th century have been discriminated against since late  Mobutu Sese Seko’s 1971 Citizenship Decree that originally was aimed at granting citizenship to those who had arrived in Congo from 1959- 1963.

Their growing influence in the Congolese administration worried the political class even then.

After the fall of Mobutu’s regime and the “Congo Wars” ( 1996-7, 1998-2003) ethnic conflicts involving land between Kinyarwanda speaking communities erupted in the Kivus around similar Hutu-Tutsi dynamics as seen in neighboring Rwanda and Burundi. 

One would naively say that it is the remnants of these wars and ethnic conflicts that have now evolved into the annihilation that the Banyamulenge are facing today but according to Banyamulenge community leaders whom I have personally spoken with,  there is a much darker conspiracy against them .

These leaders say they have sent a message to President Kagame, appealing to him to stop massacring their people:  “ It is what he is doing, he ( Kagame )wants to take over our land. We have been defending ourselves from his invasion but we are losing. They are burning our homes, raping our women, and killing our youth.” 

According to these same community leaders, there is a plot to displace the Banyamulenge, they have been fighting to protect their land from different rebel groups for years, one of which is the infamous Red Tabara made of elements who failed the coup d’etat that was to depose late president Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi. 

These community leaders also attest to the fact that Rwandan troops are present in DRC. 

“They ( Rwandan troops ) are here in FARDC uniforms, in North and South Kivu are worried about what is to come. We understand Presidents Kabila and Kagame are colluding and conspiring, they are managing this project to remove us ( Banyamulenge). How else would you explain the arming of RED Tabara and MAI MAI by the FARDC who are sent to demolish our homes and displace us?!

Our people now live in different camps, some are still in Murambya but most are displaced, have died, or have fled the region.” 

“ We know and see the hand of Kigali in this. The ambassador Vincent Karega is working with informants who are themselves working with FARDC and the ambassador is not alone in this, there are other officials involved: Azarias Ruberwa, Maitre Moise Nyarugabo, General Padiri Kabano, Col Michael Rukunda a.k.a Makanika who is in the hills of Minembwe …”

It is hard to believe that  President Tshisekedi is not aware of what is going on, observers say he is most likely taking and executing orders from his predecessor as he has no influence in the army whatsoever. 

The never-ending stampede of armed groups stomping the East of the Democratic Republic of Congo leaving countless victims in their track has been a permanent news feature for now over two decades, after hearing from these Banyamulenge community leaders and Dr. Denis Mukwege’s  July 2nd, 2020’s denouncement of the creation of a “Republic of Kivu”, the conspiracy to create a new state through another Congo war is slowly starting to sink in.

The question remains, now that the cat is out of the bag, what will the international community do about it? 

Noble Marara