Ebuteli and the Congo Study Group (GEC), both Congolese ‘non-profit organizations’, on August 6, published a ‘report’ alleging that the M23 rebels are mainly external to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), accusing Rwanda of being the main supporter of the rebels currently active in the province of North Kivu.

For years, Kigali has denied all allegations regarding support to the M23 rebels.

The 60-page document titled "The resurgence of the M23: regional rivalries, donor politics and the blockage of the peace process", in detail recycled the same lies about the M23 rebels.

“The resurgence of the M23 comes from outside the DRC. The weakness of the Congolese state has worsened the crisis, which also has deep local roots, but the M23 has mainly emerged as a means for Rwanda to project its influence against its northern neighbor, Uganda,” reads part of the report.

By publishing this kind of ‘report’, Ebuteli’s mission was to spread disinformation about the M23 rebels, showing failure to properly investigate, but most importantly, shield the Congolese government from its responsibilities in dealing with the M23 and solving their grievances.

The M23 is a Congolese political-military movement founded in May 2012, because of the many failures of the government of the DRC, mainly the refusal to implement the peace agreement signed on March 23, 2009.

In 2013, the rebel group was defeated by the UN Force Intervention Brigade (FIB), the rebels then split into two groups where the bigger faction of roughly 1,700 soldiers fled to Uganda and 700 soldiers went to Rwanda.

The M23 faction that fled to Rwanda was first disarmed and secured in Rubavu District, near the border with DRC. Two weeks later, Kigali relocated the group’s fighters to the country’s Eastern Province, doing its best to abide by international norms which dictate that in a situation where armed rebels cross into a country, they must be relocated to a place far away from the border of their country.

However, the Ebuteli report failed to mention that in 2017, the M23 faction in Uganda returned to DRC but did not fight because they were waiting for the implementation of the peace agreement the Congolese government had signed with them. In 2020, the rebels were back to negotiating with the Congolese government.

However, during the 14 months of negotiations with Kinshasa, the Congolese army attacked the rebels’ headquarters in Sabyinyo. The M23 soon after realized that Kinshasa had no intention to honor any of the agreements. Kinshasa chose to attack and kill their fighters, and this is when the rebels decided to take up arms and defend themselves, hence their resurgence in November 2021.

It is absurd how the so-called report failed to mention that the M23 faction from Uganda, is the one that took up arms again, since many of the fighters who had fled to Rwanda were demobilised voluntarily or negotiated their way into the DRC’s national army. This shows that Ebuteli’s purpose was to recycle the same allegetions against Rwanda, with no proof.

To date, the rebels have captured swathes of territory in North Kivu, and demanded  for dialogue with their government.  The Congolese government has not only failed to dialogue with the rebels but branded them as ‘terrorists’, evading their responsibility towards their own citizens.

The DRC government is far from being a victim. It is responsible for the M23 resurgence, yet organizations like Ebuteli choose to support Kinshasa in their blame games, accusing Rwanda, giving reason to their refusal to apply signed accords with the rebels since 2012, while promoting hate speech.

On top of their national grievances, the M23 rebels are fighting an existential threat; to protect the lives of Congolese Tutsi and Rwandophones who are now targets of hate speech and violence orchestrated by their own state or government. Hundreds have, so far, been murdered in various parts of eastern DRC.

All these are facts that the so-called Ebuteli report ignored, but argued that the increase of the anti-Tutsi violence in North Kivu was because of the emergence of the M23.

“Contrary to the narratives advanced by the Rwandan government and the M23, which claim that the rebellion emerged in response to anti-Tutsi violence and collaboration between the FDLR and the Congolese government, we find that it is rather the rise of the M23 that has led to the strengthening of these phenomena,” cites part of the report.

By reading these lines, it is hard to miss how Ebuteli chose to blame the victims, and the M23, whose members are from diverse ethnic backgrounds, and not a ‘Tutsi group’ as many like to refer to it, while whitewashing the genocidal FDLR militia.

Ebuteli ignored the fact that the anti-Tutsi hate speech existed long before the resurgence of the M23 rebels. 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.

Additionally, for the past three decades, the current violence and hate speech perpetrated against the Congolese Tutsi is mainly perpetuated by the FDLR, a militia formed by the remnants of the perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

The Ebuteli report conveniently attempts to justify the collaboration of the Congolese army with genocidal forces, and effectively dismisses the M23 cause. The report does not provide any tangible political solution to the crisis in easternDRC. Its aim is to smother any genuine efforts towards attaining peace.