Ambassador Nkulikiyimfura: The international world tolerates the FDLR as a menace to Rwanda

Amb. François Nkulikiyimfura, Rwanda’s ambassador to France, Spain, Italy, Monaco, and Portugal, has stated that the international community has not taken seriously the security danger posed by the FDLR genocidal militia, which is currently a strategic ally of the Congolese army (FARDC).

During a speech to the lower chamber of the French parliament on Wednesday, April 2, he made the remarks and emphasized that the threat originated on Rwanda’s borders.

The FDLR is a terrorist organization located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that was founded by the survivors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi.

Equipped with Kinshasa’s allies, the murderous militia joined arms with the Congolese army coalition against the AFC/M23 rebel movement with the intention of attacking Rwanda. The greatest threat to Rwanda and the area is the murderous ideology of the homicidal militia.

According to Nkulikiyimfura, Rwanda has been facing an existential threat along its border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo for the past thirty years—”and that’s 170 kilometers from our capital [Kigali].”

He noted that in order to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of this threat, Rwanda had to actively and properly implement defense measures.

When discussing the nature of the threat, Nkulikiyimfura gave some background information that is crucial for Rwanda, he emphasized.

After the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, a 100-day atrocity in which “more than a million people were systematically massacred for the sole reason that they were born Tutsi,” he claimed, the threat became apparent.

An international community that had recognized the warning signals of genocide but chose to ignore them left Rwanda in a state of misery. And those who carried out this atrocity were able to escape and seek safety in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo by exploiting this mindset, and occasionally even this complicity,” he continued.

“More than 30 years have passed since the militias that carried out the last genocide of the 20th century regrouped, reorganized, and rearmed in order to complete the task—that is, to return and eradicate the Tutsi.”

“FDLR continues to enjoy total impunity, protected by successive Congolese governments,” Nkulikiyimfura said, referring to the organization’s recognition as a terrorist organization by the United States and the United Nations, as well as sanctions imposed by the European Union.

“The FDLR is today a strategic ally of Kinshasa, in coalition with the Congolese armed forces.”

He stated that although the FDLR-FARDC combination poses a security risk to Rwanda, it is nevertheless accepted by the international world and the UN peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), “which was supposed to disarm them” but hasn’t done so for the past 25 years.

Normalized persecution of Congolese Tutsis

According to Nkulikiyimfura, even at the highest levels of the government, calls for hatred against Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese, particularly the Tutsi, are made and supported. This opens the door for various wrongdoings, such as acts of cannibalism committed by some Congolese against their fellow Kinyarwanda-speaking citizens.

He clarified that while remarks about racial profiling generate outrage in France, they are commonplace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where it is considered a death sentence to have a particular appearance or to be seen as Rwandan or Tutsi.

“Shamelessly posted on social media, summary executions have become the norm,” he said.