Addressing the nation in November 2022, DRC President Félix Tshisekedi rallied young Congolese to organize themselves into vigilantee groups to accompany and support the security forces in what he called a ‘hefty mission to defend the country’.

The young men and women heeded their President’s call, converged in training centres across the country, and started calling  themselves the ’wazalendo’, loosely translated to "patriots” or “nationalists".

Related: DRC creates new militia along border with Rwanda

Less than a year after their creation, this group is creating more chaos in DRC.

On August 30, in Goma, the Natural Judaic and Messianic Faith Towards the Nations, known colloquially as Wazalendo organized protests against the East African Community Regional Force (EACRF) and the United Nations peacekeeping mission in DRC (MONUSCO).

During the violent protests, things went south. The Congolese national army indiscriminately opened fire on the protesters. At least 56 civilians were shot dead, 220 injured while more than 60 were arrested.

Soon after the carnage, images of Congolese soldiers dragging corpses and piling them into a lorry, surfaced on social media, causing a public outcry.

Related: DRC: Tshisekedi should be held accountable for the carnage in Goma

When Tshisekedi and his government realized that things had been mishandled and the situation was getting out of hand, they made up a series of reckless excuses. One of Kinshasa's immediate response to the Goma massacres was their inclination to blame Rwanda for the atrocities.

On September 8, during a Council of Ministers chaired by Tshisekedi, Deputy Prime Minister of Defence Jean-Pierre Bemba blatantly alleged that the unfortunate carnage in Goma was the result of the creation by neighbouring Rwanda, of false groups also claiming to be Wazalendo.

Blaming Rwanda continues to be a desperate attempt by Kinshasa to shift blame away from the DRC's own internal issues.

Prior to Bemba’s statement,  Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Peter Kazadi defended the carnage in Goma, saying that they had ‘intelligence’ that Rwandan special forces had been deployed at the borders, which prompted the Congolese army to be ‘vigilant’.

Kazadi added that he did not feel responsible for the bloodshed of his compatriots.

His sentiment was shared by the Congolese army and government spokesperson in North Kivu, Lt Col Kaiko Ndjike, who said that the "defense forces had acted professionally."

Who is fooling who?

After his people were shot dead, Tshisekedi sent his spokesperson to present his ‘most saddened condolences’ to the families of the victims. He then called on the police to redouble their efforts in the areas of prevention and dialogue with the population they have the noble mission of protecting.

Tshisekedi’s message left questions. If his army was shooting at ‘the enemy’, why then would he condole the grieving families?

If his army acted professionally as they claimed, why would they arrest six soldiers for taking part in a crackdown on protests? Why did Tshisekedi recall back the Military Governor of North Kivu, Lt Gen Constant Ndima, to Kinshasa “for consultation”?

The arrested soldiers are accusing Ndima of giving the orders to shoot on protesters. Is Tshisekedi covering his tracks by bringing Ndima to Kinshasa?

Kinshasa always chooses to deflect blame to Rwanda. This culture of impunity and a glaring lack of responsibility and accountability only leads to a never-ending cycle of violence and crimes in the country.