The FDLR and Burundi conspired to carry out the DR Congo village massacre, according to a scholar

Harvard scholar Bojana Coulibaly and her research partner traveled to the area to look into “the infamous” October 2023 attack on a village called Nturo, which is located about 80 kilometers northwest of the provincial capital, Goma, as part of a book project on the mechanisms of genocide ideology in eastern DR Congo’s North Kivu Province.

After interviewing the villagers, Coulibaly wrote in her brief report “300 Tutsi homes burned to the ground in Nturo by FDLR!” on X on Wednesday, March 19, that “we found that Nturo had about 300 homes owned by Congolese Tutsi.”

Beginning on October 2, 2023, the homes were assaulted three days in a row by the FDLR, a terrorist group located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that was established in the middle of the 2000s by the surviving leaders of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsi. That was one month prior to the EAC forces’ pullout and six months after M23 rebels left 80 percent of the area they had previously held in the Rutshuru and Masisi regions.

The East African Community Regional Force (EACRF), a multinational force of troops from Burundi, Kenya, South Sudan, and Uganda, was sent to eastern DR Congo in November 2022 to aid in restoring peace and security during the height of the violence between the Congolese army and M23 rebels.

The regional force was initially stationed in the North Kivu Province’s Masisi, Nyiragongo, and Rutshuru areas. There, it attempted to work with the Congolese army to support a political process that was then in progress that involved protecting civilians and upholding peace agreements.

“300 Tutsi homes burned to the ground in Nturo by FDLR!”

As part of an agreed-upon disengagement strategy intended to aid in the restoration of peace in eastern DR Congo, the M23 rebels began to withdraw and turn up previously held regions to EACRF in late 2022.

However, this compounded matters because Kinshasa wanted the regional force to fight the M23, which was outside the scope of the force’s operational mandate.

“During the Burundian forces’ watch, the FDLR attacked Nturo multiple times.”

Because Kinshasa relied on allies like Burundi, some SADC nations, Rwandan genocidaires, and European mercenaries to aid in the fight against the rebels, the regional force was expelled a little more than a year after it was sent to bolster peace efforts for the country’s war-torn east. Early in December 2023, EAC troops started to leave the nation, and on December 21, 2023, they finished leaving Goma.

“The Burundian EAC contingent controlled the area during the main attack,” Coulibaly clarified. We learned that FDLR-Nyatura-Wazalendo methodically targeted the 300 Nturo families following M23’s withdrawal in March 2023. The inhabitants were subjected to persecution and were required to pay FDLR monthly taxes for their land and cattle. When people were unable to pay their taxes, they were slaughtered.

Officially known as the Collective of Movements for Change, Nyatura, or Mai-Mai Nyatura, are a collection of Congolese militias that speak Kinyarwanda and adhere to the same genocide doctrine as the FDLR.

Wazalendo, on the other hand, are a Congolese militia group made up of elements affiliated with the official Congolese military (FARDC), such as FDLR, and various Nyatura groups. They were founded in late 2022 when Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi called for the creation of “vigilance groups” to aid his army in the fight against M23.

Following M23’s withdrawal, the FDLR launched multiple attacks on Nturo while the Burundian EAC forces were in charge. Every Nturo person we spoke with concurred that on the day of the main onslaught, the Burundian EAC soldiers authorized the FDLR-Nyatura-Wazalendo. One of the attackers verified this in a video. The Burundian EAC forces’ support of anti-Tutsi genocide ideology may help to explain their cooperation with the FDLR.

She clarified that two inhabitants of Nturo were slain on the first day of the onslaught. Nyatura and their families, members of the Rwandan genocidal militia, arrived on the second day and plundered every home, packing trucks full of Nturo residents’ possessions.

On October 2nd and 3rd, the majority of the inhabitants had left. The attackers arrived on October 4th with gasoline-filled yellow canisters. They completely destroyed the village of Nturo by purposefully spraying every home and starting a fire.

Following the raid, FDLR-Nyatura-Wazalendo admitted in a video that they were erasing a “Tutsi village” from the map.

After decades of persecution by the FDLR and their Nyatura supporters, the majority of Nturo inhabitants fled to the Bwiza IDP camp during the attack, according to Coulibaly. There, 17,000 IDPs had collected from various parts of eastern DR Congo.

“Genocide ideology’s impact”

Residents of Nturo have been returning to repair their homes since November 2023.

According to her, those who went back home in November 2023 saw attacks executed by a FARDC Sukhoi fighter plane.

In fact, residents claim that seven bombs were dropped on Nturo. All of the houses in Nturo have just been rebuilt, as we can observe when we visit today. The events at Nturo serve as an example of the divisionist tactics employed by the Kinshasa government against M23, especially its cooperation with the FDLR, a murderous organization.

According to her, it also exemplifies the “impact of genocide ideology” in the nation.

The Harvard expert said that although the UN Group of Experts report from December 2023 mentions the Nturo village attack in passing, it is undoubtedly insufficient because “no investigation was ever carried out” and the UN peacekeeping organization in DR Congo (MONUSCO) made no remark.

She pointed out that the Burundian army actually joined the Congolese government coalition, which included FARDC, MONUSCO, FDLR, Wazalendo, and European mercenaries, to combat M23 around the time of the EACRF’s pullout in November 2023.

The complete destruction of Nturo is evidence of the continuous ethnic cleansing of the Tutsi population in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Given that the FDLR carried out systematic attacks against Congolese Tutsis in Kitchanga and Bwiza, it demonstrates the influence of genocide ideology in the area.

According to her, this tragedy also shows how safe the M23 presence was for the people of Nturo. However, Coulibaly stated, inhabitants of Nturo experienced a significant decline in security when M23 withdrew in March 2023 to allow EAC to take control. “This specific component appears to validate M23’s existence.”

She asked if we could draw the conclusion that M23 is the answer to the insecurity in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo in light of these findings.

In 2021, the most recent conflict between the M23 rebels and the Congolese army coalition began.

M23 is currently a member of the Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC), a broader rebel group that was established in December 2023.

AFC is fighting for government that upholds fundamental human rights, protects all Congolese citizens, and tackles the underlying causes of conflict under the leadership of Corneille Nangaa, the former chairman of the DR Congo national electoral commission (CENI).

Among other evils that are pervasive in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the insurrection has pledged to eradicate nepotism, tribalism, corruption, and the doctrine of genocide.

Large tracts of land were liberated in January as the rebels swiftly spread throughout the provinces of North and South Kivu.

After intense combat brought on by the Congolese army coalition’s persistent violations of a previously agreed-upon ceasefire, the rebels took Goma and reinstated order there on January 27. The rebels once more reacted when the security situation in South Kivu worsened due to allegations of violence, looting, and atrocities spread by the Congolese army coalition. On February 15, they took control of the important airport of Kavumu before pushing south to seize the regional capital, Bukavu.

Citing interference by Western nations, particularly the EU, led by Belgium, and some international organizations, the rebels withdrew Monday from previously planned direct peace talks with the Congolese government in the Angolan capital, Luanda, on March 18. They claimed that these entities were “deliberately working to sabotage peace efforts” in DR Congo and prevent the long-awaited talks.

“The successive sanctions imposed on our members, including those adopted on the eve of the Luanda discussions, seriously compromise direct dialogue and prevent any progress,” stated Lawrence Kanyuka, spokesperson for the AFC/M23.