The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has experienced a prolonged series of internal hostilities, from the colonial era to date. Unfortunately, one community –Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese, especially the Tutsi – have been the target of deadly attacks and mobs that were, on many occasions, supported by successive Congolese administrations.

More than 260 armed groups are operating in eastern DRC, where the Congolese Tutsi Community lives. A large number of the groups, supported by Kinshasa, have been targeting the Congolese Tutsi, thanks to the genocide ideology spread in the region by the FDLR genocidal group which was formed by remnants of the perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

This has led to the creation of successive rebel groups by Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese, to defend themselves against an existential threat.

On the other hand, DRC has been accusing Rwanda of backing these rebel groups, an accusation that Kigali has repeatedly denied. The Congolese military and government officials are always quick to blame Rwanda for DRC’s insecurity while diverting attention from their failures.

Rwanda can never gain from an insecure DRC.  Insecurity in eastern DRC has affected Rwanda in various ways. First, insecurity there created a safe haven for the FDLR genocidal militia which aims at destabilizing Rwanda. From there, the FDLR plotted and executed attacks on Rwandan soil on different occasions, killing civilians and damaging properties.

The FDLR uses its base in eastern DRC, and support from successive Congolese governments, to spread genocide ideology in the great lakes region. This has fueled hate speech and resulted in the persecution of the Congolese Tutsi. The FDLR is a security threat to both countries and the region in general.

Rwanda wishes to have a safe and secure eastern DRC, without the threat of the genocide ideology. The existence of FDLR and more than 260 other armed groups in eastern DRC has led to continuing influxes of Congolese refugees to Rwanda and other countries. Over 100,000 Congolese refugees live in Rwanda. Some have spent more than 20 years in Rwandan refugee camps. Rwanda would be happy to see these refugees returning to their homeland, but they cannot go back while their security concerns remain unsolved.

On different occasions, Belgium, among other Western countries, sided with DRC in blaming Rwanda for the insecurity in its volatile eastern region, just for political and economic interests. The Westerners are aware of the root causes of the long-lasting insecurity in DRC, but they chose to appease Kinshasa in order to gain access to DRC’s mineral resources. 

The West has showed no interest in resolving DRC’s conflicts, but added fuel to the fire by siding with Kinshasa, a move that escalated tensions between the volatile country and its neighbors, especially Rwanda.

While in Goma, the capital of North Kivu Province, on April 19, Belgian Ambassador to DRC Roxane de Bilderling said that the country should file a complaint with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over Rwanda’s failure to respect its border.

The Ambassador’s statement came as no surprise. Belgium is the root cause of all the ethnic discrimination that led to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Roxane de Bilderling does not care about the looming genocide against the Congolese Tutsi in DRC.

DRC should file a complaint against Belgium, instead. Belgium has been a key player in the DRC security crisis since the 1880s, until today. The central African nation has been the victim and never found the way to get rid of this tragedy since its colonization.

The DRC has been experiencing violence and extensive abuses of power. Prolonged civil wars, coupled with continued mismanagement of state resources, placing the country among the group of the world's fragile states.

The DRC story begins when European powers scrambled for Africa, in what was called The Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, also known as the Congo Conference.

In the conference, the Belgians’ second King and founder of Congo Free State, present-day DRC, King Leopold II, awarded himself the vast and mostly unexplored territory surrounding the Congo River.

Under Leopold II's administration, the DRC became a humanitarian disaster. He looted Congolese resources and killed an estimated 10 million people under forced labour.

King Leopold's wealth, looted from DRC, made him the richest man in the world and furnished him with the funds to build and develop Brussels, Antwerp and Ostend.

Under the pretense of propagating christianity and trade in Africa, Belgium exploited DRC’s mineral resources, ivory and rubber. The colonial state was notorious for its brutal practices, including severed hands, which became its infamous symbol. Colonial officials brutally maimed people for failing to deliver harvest quotas.

Forced labour, corporal punishments, kidnapping, and slaughtering of rebellious villagers were among other atrocities recorded during the colonial period.

The DRC suffered a lot under Belgium rule until it achieved independence in 1960. However, on January 17, 1961, the country’s first Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba, was executed by way of a firing squad. His body was dissolved in acid and his remains, comprising of only a tooth, were taken to Belgium.

A Belgian parliamentary investigation into the assassination of DRC's independence hero concluded that Belgium was responsible for his death. In 2002, then Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt apologized for Belgium’s involvement in DRC’s prolonged hostilities.

Brussels sent back Lumumba’s tooth to Kinshasa, 61 years after his murder. In 2020, Belgium's current King, Philippe expressed deep regret for the "suffering and humiliation" inflicted on DRC during its 75 years under Belgian rule.

However, Belgium’s hand in the DRC crisis remains covert and indirect. Belgium will never leave DRC since what they came looking for - mineral resources - is still there.

The Berlin conference was also referred to as the Congo Conference because the main point of discussion was to amicably divide resources among Western countries, at the expense of the Congolese people. The DRC's vast resources were at the center of the Conference, a position that has not changed until today, within modern Europe.

Members of the European Union, particularly Germany, France, and Belgium, registered significant roles in the eastern DRC crisis. Without the Berlin Conference, which partitioned Africa among European colonial powers, the eastern DRC crisis would have not existed.

Rwandophones found themselves in eastern DRC, where the then Rwandan territories of Rutshuru, Bunyabungo, Masisi, Gishali, Tongo and Idjwi, among others, were given to DRC as result of the Belgian administration’s resettlement programme of Rwandese in the Congo – movement de l' installation de la population – implemented from 1931.

Since then, Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese have been persecuted and denied their rights by other Congolese communities with the knowledge of Congolese governments, claiming that they were “foreigners who want to balkanize eastern DRC,” ignoring the fact that they received those people during the partition of the borders.

If they are accepting the land they received, Kinshasa must also respect the people received under that partition.

This partition of borders has been a key factor as regards the hostilities in eastern DRC. Due to the same, Kinshasa denied the citizenship of Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese. Belgium as the causal agent of the hostilities turned a blind eye and never wanted to act in any way.

The Belgian ambassador’s suggestion to file a complaint against Rwanda with the ICJ is a scapegoat and cover up for her country’s responsibility in the crisis. Belgium should be held accountable for making DRC a fragile state for all this long.