The east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been volatile for more than the past three decades.

Causes of the ongoing conflict in eastern DRC include the country’s poor governance, corruption among government officials, and the failure of the country’s political establishment to ensure security for the population.

The existence of foreign and local armed groups which sustain themselves from illegal mining revenues is merely a symptom of a larger problem. It is not the root cause of everything going wrong in a country considered to be the world's richest country in terms of wealth in natural resources.

Most of the raw mineral deposits remain untapped and are worth an estimated $24 trillion. These deposits include the world's largest coltan reserves and considerable amounts of cobalt.

But DRC is among the five poorest nations in the world, according to the World Bank. In 2022, nearly 62% of Congolese, around 60 million people, lived on less than $2.15 a day.

Related: What makes DRC a safe haven for terror groups?

However, too often, when regarding the conflicts in the country, the international community and observers, like to assume that they are dealing with conflicts orchestrated by DRC's neighbors, who, it is always alleged, are backing rebel movements. Congolese officials are, especially, always quick to shift the blame of all their insecurity issues to Rwanda.

While attending the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) meeting in Yaoundé, Cameroon, Rwanda's Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Vincent Biruta, pointed out that the Congolese government has gotten into the habit of accusing Rwanda for the notorious governance failures that characterize their country.

A Congolese official had just told delegates at the Ministerial summit that Rwanda is backing rebels in his country and causing trouble. Kinshasa continues to allege that Kigali supports the M23 rebellion, a rebel movement formed by members of the persecuted Congolese Tutsi ethnic group in eastern DRC that has been denied rights to citizenship.

The Congolese government spreads a narrative that they are Rwandans and labels them as terrorists so that it avoids peace talks with them. More than 80,000 of their people live in refugee camps in Rwanda, while thousands others are in Uganda and other countries.

In Yaounde, Biruta could not let the Congolese official’s lies go unchecked.

He told delegates that the Congolese official “forgot to tell you that there are more than 200 armed groups in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, including genocidal armed groups like the FDLR.”

The FDLR is a US-sanctioned terrorist group formed by remnants of the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

“Even before the resurgence of this armed group the M23, the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo had announced a state of siege North Kivu, and Ituri; that was in May 2021. This means that these problems existed well and truly before the resurgence of the armed group he cited,” said Biruta.

The M23 is a Congolese rebel group that resurged in November 2021. This was after nearly a decade of silence following their defeat in 2013. The rebels are far from being the sole cause of the DRC conflict. They are fighting for a genuine cause; their rights to life and establishment as any other Congolese citizens.

Related: Why the M23 rebels are fighting

Since the 1990s, Congolese officials, security forces and citizens, have persecuted, looted their cattle and massacred hundreds of thousands of Rwandophones with the allegations that the Congolese Tutsi community is trying to balkanize eastern DRC.

The current violence and hate speech perpetrated against Tutsi Congolese is mainly the result of the refugee crisis which led to the flight of many criminals - involved in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda - to eastern DRC, and forming the FDLR in mid 2000.

Many Congolese Tutsi have been fleeing, this imported hate by génocidaires, to neighboring countries while others are constantly being internally displaced.

Knowing that if Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese don’t fight, they will all be exterminated, the M23 rebellion took up arms again to defend themselves against this existential threat.

The rebels’ demands to their own government have been simple; to be integrated in the national army, protect the lives of Congolese Tutsi and be recognized as legitimate Congolese citizens.

Instead of actually solving the real issues and causes of the conflict for the past three decades, Kinshasa chooses to blame the M23 rebels, while accusing Rwanda of supporting them; simply because it’s the easiest way out of taking responsibility of their own failures.

In May 2021, the Congolese government decreed a state of siege in North Kivu and Ituri Provinces. This saw military authority replacing civilian rule, in an attempt to restore order in the volatile region of the country.

However, the state of siege has been characterized as ‘unlawful’ and has contributed to the worsening of the human rights situation in the country - a failure Kinshasa refuses to admit.

The Congolese government should take the courage to accept the political solution proposed by various regional mechanisms.

Regional leaders have voiced their support for both the Nairobi and Luanda peace initiatives, aimed at bringing peace in eastern DRC.

But Kinshasa tends to shift goalposts whenever regional leaders agree on the way forward.

Though blessed with every type of mineral – yet consistently rated lowest on the UN Human Development Index – the DRC will always be the country where even the more fortunate live in grinding poverty if its leadership never stops living in denial.

The DRC’s enemy is not Rwanda, or Uganda, or any other neighbours.

The enemy is within the country. It is bad and ineffective leadership.