DR Congo: Nduhungirehe requests that the UN take action about Tutsi killings

In response to hate speech and targeted killings of Tutsi communities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, whose government is implicated in the atrocities, Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Olivier Nduhungirehe urged the UN Human Rights Council on Wednesday, February 26, to speak out.

Nduhungirehe added that Congolese government forces have been attacking Banyamulenge settlements in South Kivu province in recent days. He was speaking at the 58th Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland on Tuesday, February 26.

In response to hate speech and targeted killings of Tutsi communities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, whose government is implicated in the atrocities, Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Olivier Nduhungirehe urged the UN Human Rights Council on Wednesday, February 26, to speak out.

Nduhungirehe added that Congolese government forces have been attacking Banyamulenge settlements in South Kivu province in recent days. He was speaking at the 58th Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland on Tuesday, February 26.

Targeted violence and hate speech against Congolese Tutsi groups “have become distressingly commonplace,” he claimed.

A fundamental right to a dignified life is still unfulfilled in many parts of the world, including the Great Lakes Region, where “the cancer of violent ethnic extremism and genocide ideology has once again re-emerged,” the Rwandan minister noted, despite the remarkable global progress made in the last three decades in terms of basic rights.

As a sobering reminder of the atrocities committed during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsi, communities are still targeted based on their identity, appearance, or even language.

For Congolese Tutsis, he claimed, “hate speech, persecution, lynching, and even acts of cannibalism have become distressingly commonplace in eastern DR Congo.”

He accused the Congolese government of committing such crimes against humanity, citing South Kivu province as an example, where government forces bomb Banyamulenge settlements in Minembwe and persecute them in other cities like Uvira.

As in the past, they are even gathered up and sent to an unidentified location in Bujumbura, Burundi. The CODECO militia, which is affiliated with the [Congolese] government and the Islamic tstate-backed ADF, is slaughtering the Hema ethnic group in Ituri, far north of Rwanda’s border, with complete impunity, he said, while Congolese Tutsis and even Swahili speakers are being persecuted and lynched in broad daylight in Kinshasa.

Nduhungirehe criticized Kinshasa’s ethnic politics as being careless and said the government permitted armed groups, such as the Wazalendo and the FDLR genocidal militia, to commit systematic violations of human rights, frequently with the help of Burundian forces stationed there.

“People like Justin Bitakwira, a member of parliament from the majority party and a personal friend of President Tshisekedi, use hate speech as a political tool by saying that all Tutsis are ‘natural born criminals,’ questioning whether the same God who created the Tutsi also created other Congolese,” Nduhungirehe explained.

This problem is not new, he said, adding that in 1998, then Foreign Minister and Vice-President Abdoulaye Yerodia dehumanized Tutsis by referring to them as “vermin and microbes that must be eradicated methodically” and predicting that they would suffer the same fate as Jews during World War II.

The Nduhungire He also thought back to the January 28 attacks on foreign embassies in Kinshasa after M23 rebels took control of Goma and the Thérèse Wagner speech in which she warned the UN Security Council that “the streets will take care of it” and “the street does not have order or temperament” if it did not step in.

In fact, it was handled by the streets following [Wagner’s] speech. In Kinshasa and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tutsi people were increasingly targeted, killed, and lynched. The Congolese army’s assault drones are bombing Banyamulenge villages in Minembwe, South Kivu, in addition to the targeted executions,” he said.

He claimed that these atrocities were similar to the October 2023, full-day burning of 300 Congolese Tutsi homes in the village of Nturo in Masisi region in North Kivu by government-backed militias, with Burundian forces watching.

These atrocities have all been extensively documented and show a concerning trend. According to the United Nations, more than 30% of human rights abuses in conflict areas were committed by [Congolese] security organs in the final quarter of 2024 alone, he claimed.

Although all rights are equal under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Nduhungirehe said that the persecution of Tutsi communities in Congo demonstrates a double standard.

He asked, “In the face of such injustice, how can this Council remain silent?”

Targeted violence and hate speech against Congolese Tutsi groups “have become distressingly commonplace,” he claimed.

A fundamental right to a dignified life is still unfulfilled in many parts of the world, including the Great Lakes Region, where “the cancer of violent ethnic extremism and genocide ideology has once again re-emerged,” the Rwandan minister noted, despite the remarkable global progress made in the last three decades in terms of basic rights.

As a sobering reminder of the atrocities committed during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsi, communities are still targeted based on their identity, appearance, or even language.

For Congolese Tutsis, he claimed, “hate speech, persecution, lynching, and even acts of cannibalism have become distressingly commonplace in eastern DR Congo.”

He accused the Congolese government of committing such crimes against humanity, citing South Kivu province as an example, where government forces bomb Banyamulenge settlements in Minembwe and persecute them in other cities like Uvira.

As in the past, they are even gathered up and sent to an unidentified location in Bujumbura, Burundi. The CODECO militia, which is affiliated with the [Congolese] government and the Islamic tstate-backed ADF, is slaughtering the Hema ethnic group in Ituri, far north of Rwanda’s border, with complete impunity, he said, while Congolese Tutsis and even Swahili speakers are being persecuted and lynched in broad daylight in Kinshasa.

Nduhungirehe criticized Kinshasa’s ethnic politics as being careless and said the government permitted armed groups, such as the Wazalendo and the FDLR genocidal militia, to commit systematic violations of human rights, frequently with the help of Burundian forces stationed there.

“People like Justin Bitakwira, a member of parliament from the majority party and a personal friend of President Tshisekedi, use hate speech as a political tool by saying that all Tutsis are ‘natural born criminals,’ questioning whether the same God who created the Tutsi also created other Congolese,” Nduhungirehe explained.

This problem is not new, he said, adding that in 1998, then Foreign Minister and Vice-President Abdoulaye Yerodia dehumanized Tutsis by referring to them as “vermin and microbes that must be eradicated methodically” and predicting that they would suffer the same fate as Jews during World War II.

The Nduhungire He also thought back to the January 28 attacks on foreign embassies in Kinshasa after M23 rebels took control of Goma and the Thérèse Wagner speech in which she warned the UN Security Council that “the streets will take care of it” and “the street does not have order or temperament” if it did not step in.

In fact, it was handled by the streets following [Wagner’s] speech. In Kinshasa and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tutsi people were increasingly targeted, killed, and lynched. The Congolese army’s assault drones are bombing Banyamulenge villages in Minembwe, South Kivu, in addition to the targeted executions,” he said.

He claimed that these atrocities were similar to the October 2023, full-day burning of 300 Congolese Tutsi homes in the village of Nturo in Masisi region in North Kivu by government-backed militias, with Burundian forces watching.

These atrocities have all been extensively documented and show a concerning trend. According to the United Nations, more than 30% of human rights abuses in conflict areas were committed by [Congolese] security organs in the final quarter of 2024 alone, he claimed.

Although all rights are equal under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Nduhungirehe said that the persecution of Tutsi communities in Congo demonstrates a double standard.

He asked, “In the face of such injustice, how can this Council remain silent?”