Rwandan Media Bullying Banyamulenge diaspora.
On 10-11th of April 2025, the University of Bradford and the City Council of Bradford jointly organized a conference to discuss the Banyamulenge situation in the United Kingdom and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The conference was attended by members of the Banyamulenge community in the United Kingdom and across different countries, the Lord Mayor of Bradford, researchers, and academicians from different universities and organizations. For many years, the Banyamulenge have been experiencing different forms of violence reminiscent of genocidal attacks and slow elimination.
The next day (12.04.2025), a Rwandan media outlet, namely Igihe (www.igihe.com), published a lengthy article portraying and threatening people who, by majority, had attended this conference. Igihe is one of the top-tier Rwandan media outlets publishing online. The media publishes in English, French, and mostly in Kinyarwanda. It has a large online presence, with a significant number of followers on Twitter (790,000) and Facebook (475,000).
Igihe media publishes opinions and newspaper articles in relation to the conflict in the Eastern DRC and sometimes regarding the Banyamulenge. However, this article is unique in labelling individual Banyamulenge as not only pro-Tshisekedi but also portraying them as FDLR-Wazalendo sympathizers who dare contribute to financially aid these criminal groups.
Igihe Media’s article content.
On the 12th of April 2025, Igihe media published an article in Kinyarwanda titled “Bombori Bombori mu Banyamulenge bari muri Diaspora: Amafaranga ya Tshisekedi yatumye bamwe bahinduka ibikoresho”. The title of this article implies that there is something suspicious within the Banyamulenge Diaspora about money (funds) allegedly invested by President Tshisekedi to buy their minds and hearts.
The Igihe’s article mentions 18 full names of Banyamulenge individuals who live across the Democratic Republic of Congo (4), Germany (1), Belgium (1), Norway (2), and the United Kingdom (10)[1]. Only a few individuals cited can be described as politicians, and mostly those based in the DRC. They include a state minister, a military general, a member of the parliament, and a former minister. Besides their efforts to raise awareness about the ongoing persecution of the Banyamulenge, other people named in this article have nothing to do with politics.
As per Igihe media, individuals referred to in this article received “dirty money” from Kinshasa, specifically from President Tshisekedi, to counter and oppose the influence of M23 (Mouvement du 23 Mars), the Congo River Alliance (Alliance Fleuve Congo) and Twirwaneho – MRDP (Mouvement Républicain pour la Dignité du Peuple). The article makes false accusations and threatening claims that these individuals financially support Wazalendo (patriots), and FDLR (Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Rwanda), and have connections with Burundi and Gumino. As per different research, Gumino is a Banyamulenge armed group that for many years had opposed the Rwandan maneuvers to instrumentalise Banyamulenge grievances.
As far as I know (very accurately), Igihe media did not bother to enquire about their views on these accusations. The media went further to draw kinship relations between some of the individuals mentioned, indicating that the media has invested efforts to identify them. Next to the individuals mentioned, Igihe’s article also named a church based in Sheffield, which the media did not approach to verify such unbelievable claims.
Why intimidate the Banyamulenge diaspora?
Congo Virtuel has interpreted Igihe media’s article as part of Rwandan security services blacklisting “Pro-Tshisekedi Banyamulenge”. The pro-Tshisekedi label is false. There are no indications that these individuals named by Igihe have any link with Tshisekedi. Despite being concerned by the plight of their community in DRC, the majority have no interest in politics. Across the globe, transnational repression is a widespread phenomenon, and Rwandan security services have resorted to it.
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) suggests that Igihe is a “ privately-owned but takes a pro-government stance and avoids offending the authorities”. While it may take time to link Igihe’s publication and Rwandan security services, the media’s interest in publishing this lengthy article full of false accusations against the Banyamulenge remains puzzling. It can easily be characterized as bullying accusations, but to some extent, it is a transnational repression targeting a vulnerable group.
Banyamulenge are fending for themselves.
From 2017 onwards, members of the Banyamulenge community in South Kivu have experienced extreme violence that destroyed their homeland, villages, and their economy (see details here: https://theconversation.com/the-banyamulenge-how-a-minority-ethnic-group-in-the-drc-became-the-target-of-rebels-and-its-own-government-201099). While facing local militias (MaiMai and Biloze Bishambuke), Burundian rebels Red-Tabara, and the Congolese national army (FARDC), the Banyamulenge were left to fend for themselves. The African Great Lakes regional countries did not intervene, and no single country dared to condemn these atrocities.
Instead, it is believed that Rwandan security services had financially and logistically supported Red-Tabara (which they may still do now) in what is described as a proxy warfare against Burundi. The proxy warfare between Rwanda and Burundi followed the 2015 turmoil and failed military coup in Burundi.
A New move and the resurgence of M23.
While violence in 2017 targeted more Banyamulenge in Uvira territory (Bijombo groupement), the destruction of their homeland intensified in 2019 onwards. President Thisekedi came to power in 2019 following the delayed general elections held in December 2018. Since Tshisekedi came to power, DRC and Rwanda bilateral (diplomatic and economic) relations have been better than ever before. Meanwhile, the Banyamulenge were being destroyed, impoverished, but also besieged up until now.
As the two countries’ relations soured, Rwandan officials suddenly raised the persecution of the Tutsi and the Banyamulenge in the DRC as one of the issues behind M23. The Banyamulenge are likely between the hammer and an anvil. Efforts to speak up for themselves are highly surveilled by Kinshasa and Kigali. Parties in the Eastern DRC conflict wish to have the Banyamulenge aligned with their political positions. In 2023, Africa Intelligence published a lengthy article naming several individual Banyamulenge, something that was unique in this specific context. Following this Africa Intelligence publication, individual Banyamulenge were hunted down, jailed, and pushed to flee the DRC. While DRC keeps rejecting that the Tutsi and Banyamulenge are not persecuted, Kigali seems not to tolerate any voice that may bring a community perspective. And this has been going on since late 2021, at the time M23 reemerged. That is where I locate the “Bombori Bombori” newspaper article.
I beg everyone reading or translating the “Bombori Bombori” article, its Congo Virtuel translation to be kind and understand that there is another side to the story. The content of the newspaper article is extremely threatening, not only to those named but to their relatives. Next to what can be seen as media propaganda, there are several forms of bullying and attacks, including phone calls (sometimes targeting relatives), anonymous Twitter messages full of false accusations, YouTube channels targeting some individuals who are portrayed as “enemies of the Banyamulenge”…
I learnt that behind the curtains, there are scenes of bullying several people because of their stances. What is clear now is that Igihe Media has confirmed that it is linked to those anonymous attacks.
[1]One name was later removed from the original version.
Delphin Ntanyoma
