DR Congo crisis: Another raid on South Kivu’s Banyamulenge communities

Early on Wednesday, March 19, the Congolese army and its Wazalendo-allied militia attacked villages in South Kivu Province that were home to unarmed Banyamulenge residents, according to Congolese lawyer Moise Nyarugabo.

A lawyer from the Banyamulenge community named Nyarugabo posted on X, explaining that the most recent attacks targeted multiple rural communities in Minembwe, a group of villages in the Lulenge highlands in the Fizi Territory of South Kivu Province. Nyarugabo has previously reported similar attacks against his people.

Nyarugabo stated: “I believed I had read and heard about an unconditional and quick ceasefire. Regretfully, on the morning of March 19, Wazalendo and the FARDC attacked Bilalo Mbili and Mikenke north of Minembwe from Point Zero, and on the other side, attacked Murunde from Kipupu to the west. Other attacks, however, are directed towards the villages of Muliza, southeast of Minembwe town, and Bigaragara, from Rugezi.

“I urge the Banyindu, Babembe, and Bafulero armed groups to put an end to these attacks, which haven’t benefited one another in eight years, especially since no one has attacked their villages in retaliation. We shall be compelled to live together in these mountains after everything. Nobody will try to drive anyone away. The implementation of a ceasefire is just as crucial as the decision to impose one.

According to AFC/M23 rebel spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka, the Congolese government has been deploying assault drones directed by MONUSCO intelligence to massacre civilians in Minembwe, Uvira, and the adjacent districts of South Kivu Province since the end of last month. In South Kivu Province, Bertrand Bisimwa, the deputy coordinator of the AFC/M23 insurrection, stated a week later on March 4 that the DR Congo army coalition’s drones, Sukhoi fighter jets, and mortars targeted and destroyed villages occupied by unarmed Banyamulenge civilians.

In attacks by the Congolese army coalition, which consists of Burundian armed forces, Rwandan genocidal militias known as the FDLR, and Congolese militias known as Wazalendo from Uvira and those who fled Bukavu, Bisimwa claimed the Kinshasa regime is attacking peaceful populations with impunity.

The FDLR is a terrorist group located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that was established by the surviving leaders of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsi.

He went on: “The Banyamulenge populations that the regime assimilates to Rwandans make up a large portion of the population in these villages, which is the reason for these attacks.”

These massacres that target defenseless individuals are intolerable and disgusting. The AFC/M23 will not stand idly by while innocent civilians are massacred; we will take responsibility if the world has decided to keep quiet about the criminal underworld of the Kinshasa dictatorship overseen by some states.

Hours before peace talks began in Luanda, the capital of Angola, the Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC), which comprises M23 rebels, withdrew from the peace talks with the Congolese government on Monday because of EU sanctions placed on the leaders of the insurrection.

AFC/M23 spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka stated in a statement on Monday that the government coalition’s ongoing military operations and EU sanctions on its members are the main reasons endangering the talks, adding, “Our organization can no longer continue its participation in the discussions.”

“The sanctions that have been placed on our members, including those that were adopted on the eve of the Luanda discussions, seriously undermine direct communication and hinder any advancement,” Kanyuka said.

The rebels claim that these actions are not only a barrier to discussions but also a calculated attempt to make sure the talks fall apart before they start.