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Igihe Media Outlet: Harassment of Beatrice Gisaro
Beatrice Gisaro is the daughter of the late Gisaro Muhoza Frederic, the first member of the Banyamulenge community to be elected and serve as a member of the Zairean Parliament. Though members of his community are still contested, Gisaro Muhoza’s legacy shapes Banyamulenge’s political and military elite and played an important role building community’s identity as Congolese. In April 2025, Beatrice Gisaro attended the Bradford Conference, the unique academic opportunity that discussed the plight and Banyamulenge’s experiences. On 12 April 2025, many of the Banyamulenge who participated in this conference were subjected to harassment by Rwandan media outlet and social media users calling them “enemies”.
In recent months, Beatrice Gisaro has particularly been subjected to bullying and online intimidation mostly perpetrated by Rwandan social media users. These are not only anonymous individuals; they are also users well-known and with “high profiles” and media journalists. Igihe, a well-known Rwandan media outlet published an article to specifically tarnish Beatrice Gisaro’s image (click here to access the article: https://fr.igihe.com/De-l-egerie-a-la-compromission-ou-le-destin-contrarie-de-la-collaboration.html). The article authored by Tite Gatabazi accuses falsely Beatrice Gisaro of downplay violence against her community in South Kivu, to the extent Tite accuses Beatrice of complicity with Banyamulenge’s killers.
Elle s’est rangée du côté du bourreau. C’est une abdication morale. Elle s’emploie désormais, sans vergogne, à relayer la propagande d’une RTNC métamorphosée en nouvelle RTLM. Le constat est implacable:celui d’une conscience passée à la servitude du mensonge https://t.co/PftECfbf3f
— TiteR Gatabazi (@TiteRGatabazi) October 28, 2025
Lawyer and expert in International Law, Tite Gatabazi uses his social media platforms to constantly and consistently harass and intimidate Beatrice. Tite Gatabazi is part of large and coordinated groups that work to target Banyamulenge human rights advocates who do not support ongoing insurgencies in Eastern DRC. Some of these advocates are simply hesitant and question the good faith of Rwanda to fight for the Banyamulenge’s interests. Some are harassed to the point of mentioning home addresses of their relatives who live in Rwanda. It’s a form of “psychological war” that puts much pressure on members of the Banyamulenge community across the globe and mostly within the diaspora. Tite Gatabazi’s article recalls Igihe media’s article published in April 2025 to individually target members of the Banyamulenge community who attended the Bradford conference in the United Kingdom.
2. Bradford Conference on the Banyamulenge Community
On 10-11th of April 2025, the University of Bradford and the City Council of Bradford jointly organised 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. Igihe media outlet 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.
3. Bradford Conference vs Igihe’s Bullying 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 Igihe’s 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.
Igihe’s article mentioned 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]. A few individuals cited in Igihe’s article 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 the views on individuals cited in its article. The media went further to draw kinship relations between some of the individuals mentioned. This means that Igihe media has invested efforts and money 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 and false claims.
4. 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. Part of this article (mostly from section 2) was published in April 2025 as a response to Congo Virtuel misinterpretation.
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.
5. 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.
6. 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 targeting several people because of their stances. What is clear now is that Igihe Media has confirmed that it is linked to those anonymous attacks. I am sure this can be part of of transnational repression.
Delphin R. Ntanyoma
Twitter: https://x.com/Delphino12
Blog: https://easterncongotribune.com/
[1]One name was later removed from the original version.
Thanks brother for being voice of voiceless