Nduhungirehe advises the world community to stop using overused formulas and concentrate on the underlying reasons of the DR Congo problem

Amb. Olivier Nduhungirehe, the foreign affairs minister, criticized the outgoing US administration’s “inappropriate” narrative of equivalence of “threats of M23 and FDLR” on Thursday, January 16.

The minister was responding to a tweet from the US Bureau of African Affairs that compared the threat posed by the FDLR, a terrorist militia based in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that was established by the remnants of the perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, to the M23 rebellion. The M23 rebellion is fighting to protect its persecuted community in eastern DR Congo from the genocidal militia, among other objectives.

Nduhungirehe tweeted, “It is even offensive for the outgoing US administration to compare a genocidal force with a movement that defends a community that is threatened and persecuted by the same genocidal force.”

“I remember that in October 2023, the FDLR, the Wazalendo, and the Nyatura militias burned down 300 homes of Congolese Tutsi in Nturo village, Masisi territory. The FARDC and Burundian forces were present, but @AsstSecStateAF did not issue a statement or tweet.”

The minister reiterated that the US and the international community must “put an end to these recycled formulas and focus on the root causes of the crisis” in eastern DR Congo.

FDLR has been residing in eastern DR Congo for the past three decades, and it has been instrumental in the region’s destabilization, particularly through the dissemination of an anti-Tutsi genocidal ideology and the persecution of Congolese Tutsi communities.

The December 2024 midterm report of the UN Group of Experts reveals that “there is no road to peace without dialogue between the government of the DRC and armed groups, including the M23.”

The report also denounced the DRC armed forces’ ongoing “systematic cooperation” with the FDLR armed group, which is sanctioned by the U.S. and the UN.

The report states, “We strongly urge Congolese authorities to ensure that this cooperation ceases immediately. We also welcome the DRC government’s commitment to collaborating with MONUSCO to execute the FDLR neutralization plan in full compliance with international humanitarian and human rights law.”

The UNGoE report maintained that the Congolese army, FARDC, has been collaborating with militia groups, such as the FDLR, in the conflict against the M23 rebels.

Kinshasa not only aligned itself with the genocidal militia but also continued to alienate the M23 rebels, thereby diminishing the likelihood of peace.