Rwandan returning from the Democratic Republic of the Congo says, “We were told we’d be killed”

Sibomana Hitimana was one of 642 Rwandans who came back from the DR Congo on Thursday, May 22. They crossed at the Grande Barrière border post in Rubavu District.

In 2005, Sibomana, then 35 years old, left Rwanda and now lives in Masisi, where he works as a businessman selling scrap metal.

He joined the third group of hundreds of Rwandans who had crossed the border into Rwanda from the DR Congo, where they were being held hostage by the FDLR, a group made up of former Genocide offenders who still lived.

“I went to Congo to find a better life,” Sibomana said. “But they held us against our will and wouldn’t let us go home.” We were told that we would be killed if we came back. Despite being single, he said.

After the AFC/M23 rebels took over the city of Goma in eastern Congo, he was able to go back.

People who have come back from exile before him said that members of the FDLR tell Rwandans in Congo—many of whom fled in 1994—that they will be killed if they go back to Rwanda.

“They would come and steal from us,” he said. “FDLR took my things.” My business was a mess because of the war, and not many things were left behind.

Hitimana was very happy about the country’s cleanliness and safety when he got to Grande Barrière. This was different from his time in DR Congo.

“I am overjoyed after landing in my home country, where I was born,” he stated. “It is clean, unlike back in Congo where trash is everywhere, dumped on streets.”

The people who are coming back to Rwanda will be taken to the Nyarushishi Transit Camp in Rusizi District, where they will stay for two weeks. This is being paid for by the Ministry of Emergency Management (MINEMA) and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), who want to make sure they can safely and easily return to Rwandan society.

The ministry said that since January 2025, about 4,000 Rwandans have come back from the DR Congo, adding to the 3.5 million who have come back since 1994.