Last week (10-11/04/2025), the university of Bradford hosted a conference, a dialogue between researchers and members of the Banyamulenge community aiming to help academicians understand the situation of the community from their own perspective.
1. Communities’ Voice Relevance.
On 30th January 2020, amid extreme violence and destruction of the Banyamulenge homeland, Rwandan President Paul Kagame hosted the incumbent DRC’s President Felix Tshisekedi. President Kagame hailed his counterpart for his great achievement in tackling insecurity in the Eastern DRC within a short period. An English publication owned by Kigali Today news outlet reported that
President Tshisekedi came to power in 2019 following the December 2018 general elections. Elections in DRC were delayed for almost two years as they were expected to take place in 2016. In the early years of Tshisekedi’s presidency, Rwanda and DRC had good bilateral relations.
In November 2021, relations between Rwanda and DRC suddenly soured following an agreement between DRC and Uganda to engage in road construction in North Kivu. The construction of roads coincided with the plan to have joint military operations to halt the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).
Since November 2021, DRC and Rwanda’s bilateral relations have extremely deteriorated. seen officials have been accusing Rwanda of supporting the M23 (Mouvement du 23 Mars) rebel group. Rwanda has denied these accusations. Instead, Rwandan officials accuse DRC of cooperating with FDLR (Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Rwanda). FDLR is a group that is linked to militias that have committed the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Moreover, Rwandan officials have openly claimed that M23 has reasons to fight and claims to defend the rights of the Congolese Tutsi and the Banyamulenge persecuted by DRC.
From then on, the situation of the Banyamulenge and Congolese Tutsi became part of the controversial debate between DRC and Rwanda. DRC claims that there is no persecution of the Tutsi and/or Banyamulenge. On the other hand, Rwanda rings the bell that they are. While evidence proves that members of these ethnic communities are persecuted, their situation needs to be understood objectively (beyond politicized speeches and military campaigns).
For instance, Rwandan officials have rung this bell at a specific time when diplomatic relations between DRC and Rwanda became tense. Recently, Burundian officials, including President Evariste Ndayishimiye, have been bringing the Banyamulenge situation into the public debate. As tensions grow between regional countries, the voices of the Banyamulenge and other minorities are highly overwhelmed by politicized declarations.
2. The Banyamulenge since 2017 onwards
From April 2017 onwards, the Banyamulenge in South Kivu have experienced a new wave of violence that destroyed their homeland. Their situation has drastically deteriorated due to military attacks perpetrated by local militias (known as MaiMai and Biloze Bishambuke) and foreign armed groups, namely, Burundian rebels (Red-Tabara, FOREBU, and FNL). DRC army has openly been implicated in attacks against the Banyamulenge. Through proxy wars, Rwandan security services had provided military support behind Red-Tabara.
Early 2022, a report posted on Genocide Watch estimated that more than 1500 Banyamulenge civilians were killed between 2017 and 2022. Data collection is extremely challenging in this region. During this period, more than 350 were burnt to ashes. Food stocks and crops were systematically destroyed. The Banyamulenge who lived in these localities were forced to flee either outside of DRC or live in tiny sites (almost 3) internally displaced people (IDP). IDPs were subjected to systematic and coordinated military attacks that imposed siege and starvation. The Banyamulenge were not able to move within a distance of two to three kilometers. The besiegement has constantly threatened people’s existence. As the situation has deteriorated, the Banyamulenge from Minembwe cannot even travel by airlifts towards Bukavu or Goma.
Nearly 400,000 Banyamulenge cattle were pillaged or killed during these attacks. Cattle are the Banyamulenge’s main source of income and livelihood. They are now impoverished while cattle pillage rewards and increase the military capabilities of militias. Schools, health facilities, and other existing social infrastructures were also demolished.
During the digital era, Banyamulenge are victims of extreme Hate Speech. Banyamulenge were lynched and burnt alive, and their bodies were eaten by perpetrators who were bold enough to share their videos on social media: South Kivu province (Lweba), Maniema province (Kalima), and Goma, the capital city of North Kivu province.
Attacks against the Banyamulenge have persisted for many decades and are highly reminiscent of slow genocidal processes. While locally rooted in the contestation of their belonging to DRC, the political and military confrontations at the African Great Lakes regional level had been worsening and overshadowing their plight. The 2017 violence overlapped with regional confrontations that followed the 2015 contestants (failed military coup) in Burundi as well as the 2016 delayed general elections in DRC. Though challenging as are other cases of minorities across the globe, the 2017 experience has been exceptional in the way Banyamulenge had voiced for themselves away of any political interference. Their voice as a community has encountered difficulties to be heard.
3. Bradford conference & dialogue: give voice to communities
Bradford is one of the United Kingdom’s cities of Sanctuary. It is a city where those seeking shelter and sanctuary are welcomed, included, and recognised for their valuable contribution within the British society. The city encourages all communities to fully participate in building a safer future for their communities.
Bradford and its neighbouring cities, including Manchester, Hull, Sheffield, Chesterfield, and Birmingham, have become new homes for hundreds of Banyamulenge families, other Congolese ethnic communities and members of diverse communities from different countries.
On 10-11/04/2025, the Bradford City Council Lord Mayor and the University of Bradford jointly hosted a two-day community dialogue that focused on the Banyamulenge experience. For details, see the following links:
1. First day (half): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdAvXZ5vz0A
2. Second day (full): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0Nf2x0gxac&t=18493s.
The conference examined the evidence as well as relevant academic research relating to the experiences and the current situation of the Banyamulenge within the DRC/Great Lakes region as well as a diaspora. It considered ways to promote a wider awareness, understanding, and discussion of appropriate policy responses to end the persecution of the Banyamulenge and other minorities in Eastern DRC.
The conference developed ideas for further research in Bradford and the UK more widely on factors that can enable vulnerable or marginalised communities, including refugee communities, to promote awareness and understanding of their concerns and to engage with policymakers and international organisations.
4. Origin of the Banyamulenge persecution
The Banyamulenge were mainly cattle keepers who, for centuries, have lived in the DRC. Evidence and scholarly accounts confirm that the Banyamulenge settled in South Kivu well before the colonial period.
Across the African Great Lakes region, colonial accounts have dichotomized local ethnic communities into those portrayed as “immigrants” and those seen as “native”. From colonial times to the present, the Banyamulenge have been discriminated against because they are perceived as aliens and foreigners. There is historical evidence indicating that racial classification that distinguished Bantu from Hamitic people, their local chiefdoms were abolished. Therefore, they became locally stateless.
Besides the 1960s violence, throughout the 1970s to 1990s, the Banyamulenge were denied the right to vote. In the 1980s, the Zairean State resolved to strip their citizenship and later decided to expel them from DRC in 1995. In the 1996 to 1998 wars, the Banyamulenge and some foreign nationals were systematically killed across DRC based on their “physical characteristics”; and this followed public speeches of government officials, ministers, and military generals who called for the elimination of “scums and vermins”. In Burundi in 2004, the Banyamulenge were deliberately murdered, whilst supposedly under UNHCR protection.
5. Why does the Banyamulenge case matter?
In the recent attacks that emerged in 2017 and back in the 1990s, FARDC armed forces have sided with local militias and foreign armed groups to attack the Banyamulenge. Facing the threat of a historical elimination, members of the Banyamulenge community, mostly the youth, resorted to guns to protect themselves or their grievances instrumentalised by regional powers to advance their agendas.
The resurgence of M23 proves the Banyamulenge and Congolese Tutsi vulnerability. In Bukavu and Goma, demonstrations against MONUSCO and the East African Community Regional Force (EACRF) turned into pogroms targeting Banyamulenge. Insurgencies and rebellions showed limitations in terms of tackling the root causes of conflict and such ideology to get rid of those perceived as “foreigners” in their own country.
The Banyamulenge situation should be a concern to the international community. Broadly, it reflects the fate of other ethnic minorities in Eastern DRC, the Barundi community in South Kivu, the Hema of Ituri, the Congolese Tutsi community of North Kivu, and to some extent, the Congolese Hutu. Most of these communities are perceived as “strangers” in their country, and it is common for other persecuted minorities across the globe.
The UN peacekeeping mission (MONUSCO) has failed to prevent this tragedy and protect vulnerable civilians. MONUSCO and UN experts have largely failed to understand the specifics of violence targeting ethnic minorities. They tend to confine this historical discrimination and targeted attacks in the dominant narrative of inter-ethnic clashes. The UN has been reluctant to document the role of FARDC, foreign armed groups, and regional countries.
6. Way forward
From the two-day conference in Bradford, there is a hope that community voices are key in understanding their experience and suggestions for future steps to build lasting peace. The key recommendations indicate that the university has built a foundation of bringing community’s perspective within the debate to stabilise the Eastern DRC, tackle the root causes, recognising the specifics within such complex context.
Eastern Congo Tribune team.
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