EngRegional
Are there ‘new arrivals’ in eastern DRC?
Displaced Congolese.
Felix
Tshisekedi’s regime in Kinshasa is spreading a newly created narrative in
Western media that “families from Rwanda have been arriving in Masisi and
Rutshuru territories, occupied by AFC/M23 rebels, taking over villages vacated
by displaced Congolese”.
The
move aims at continuously disowning AFC/M23 rebels as legitimate Congolese
citizens, repeating the propaganda of branding them as ‘foreigners who are
invading the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.”
Fortunately,
Congolese compatriots are aware of Tshisekedi’s trickeries. Apart from hired
Western media, local journalists operating in DRC who are very sure of the
reality on the ground cannot report deceiving tales.
Thousands
of Congolese, especially from eastern DRC, have been fleeing to neighboring
countries since three decades ago. The area has been a safe haven for over 260
armed groups, including FDLR genocidal militia, a terrorist group formed by
remnants of the perpetrators of 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
The
FDLR exported its genocide ideology after the Rwandan genocidal government was
defeated, and the group has been persecuting Congolese Tutsi under the watch of
successive Congolese governments.
One of the reasons why M23 retook up arms in late 2021 after a decade was to repatriate Congolese refugees as Kinshasa failed to implement a number of signed agreements that aimed at bringing them back to their motherland.
As
AFC/M23 secures some parts of the region, it is rational that some of those
Congolese refugees in neighboring countries feel free to return back home.
Referring
to the refugees coming back to their homeland as “Rwandans” is not only cheap
propaganda, but also violation of rights to citizenship of Congolese
people.
"Both
the government and civil society recognize that we have compatriots who have
taken refuge in neighboring Rwanda and others in Uganda. Therefore, we think it
is possible to hear that some have returned to parts of the country under the
control of the M23," said Jonas Pandasi, a civil society leader in Masisi.
Augustin
Muhesi, a professor of political science in North Kivu Province, believes those
people –being referred to as “new arrivals in eastern DRC” by Western Media–
are in fact Congolese.
"The
problem that could arise would be to say that displaced people return to DRC
without any control mechanism," Muhesi said.
The
corrupt Westerners accepted to spread Tshisekedi’s propaganda with a
significant lack of critical thinking. How would M23 resettle ‘Rwandans’ in
eastern DRC before they repatriate Congolese refugees?
