A  December 2023 report, by the Bill Clinton Foundation for Peace describes the inhuman living condition of prisoners mainly Congolese Tutsi in the notorious prison of Makala in Kinshasa.

A former detainee in the same prison and journalist, Stanis Bujakera, posted videos on social media showing extreme overcrowding, while other videos showed prisoners being tortured and stripped naked as an act of humiliation. Stanis described the prison as a place where "people are dying alive." Their crime is being Tutsi and “traitors who are accomplices of M23.”

The world is not taking heed of what is happening in eastern DRC and the same scenario as happened in Rwanda in 1994, when the world showed no concern is being repeated in a neighboring country.

Kinshasa is the main actor. It recruited and armed youth militia under the name of Wazalendo, who are a replica of the infamous Interahamwe militia in Rwanda who worked hand in hand with government forces (ex-FAR) to kill the Tutsi.

Those included in the persecution and killing of Congolese Tutsi include remnants of the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, under the name of FDLR.

There are all signs of a genocide in the making in eastern DRC against Congolese Tutsi with acts ranging from hate speech, dehumanization, persecution, discrimination and killing.

The DRC government has created a narrative disowning the Congolese Tutsi calling them foreigners and Rwandans. That is why they are arrested, tortured and killed.

The government under President Felix Tshisekedi has no intention of repertriating thousands of Congolese Tutsi who are living in refugee camps in Rwanda, Uganda and other parts of the world.

Yet, when the UN talks about the eastern DRC problem, no one is bothered to question the fate of these people who have been denied their basic rights as Congolese.

In July, the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, was in Rwanda and she visited a Congolese Tutsi  refugee camp at Nkamira.

The following day, in a message shared on X, she said: “I visited the Nkamira center housing Congolese Tutsi fleeing the DRC, yesterday. The harrowing stories I heard of identity-based attacks, brutal killings, tortures, rapes, I am carrying with me. They will be heard. We must argue action for peace and safety, and their return home.”

When the refugees heard this commitment by a highly placed UN official they were overjoyed to hear that someone cares about their plight and urgent need to return to their country.

During the 30th Commemoration of genocide against the Tutsi, Nderitu was among the invited guests and in her interview with the press, she affirmed that the Congolese government has the responsibility to protect the Tutsi and Banyamulenge communities who are targeted for their identity, warning that that there are, "risk factors for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity,” in eastern DRC.

Nderitu seems to be a lone voice in a complex web of the United Nations system. Although she came face to face with the refugees who were denied rights to live in their country, nothing concrete has been done to understand the root causes of their suffering and to ensure that the violence against them is stopped so that they can safely return to their country.

When one reads reports by the UN Group of Experts (UNGoE), it is not difficult to see the biasness towards criminalizing M23 rebels while making the Kinshasa regime the victim. For unknown reasons, it is incomprehensible why Tshisekedi and his regime are not sanctioned for condoning hate speech against Congolese Tutsi, arming local militia Wazalendo to attack and kill the Tutsi, as well as arming a designated terrorist group, the FDLR.

If the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide warns that there are risk factors for Genocide in eastern DRC, why do we see other arms of UN not holding Tshisekedi and his regime responsible?

Instead, the UNGoE seems to be more concerned with DRC minerals than protecting the lives of Congolese Tutsi.

As long as the international community continues to ignore the plight of Congolese Tutsi and refuses to listen to their historical grievances, peace in eastern DRC will always remain a dream.