Security Council to get briefing on situation in DR Congo
Wednesday, June 29, 2022

The UN Security Council is on Wednesday, June 29, set to convene for a briefing on the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The briefing comes about a week after the third conclave on DR Congo by EAC Heads of State hosted, on June 20, by President Uhuru Kenyatta, in Nairobi.

During the meeting, six regional leaders deliberated on the security situation in eastern DR Congo and emphasized that all offensive language, hate speech, threats of genocide and other politically inciting language proliferated in the DR Congo must cease.

It comes at a time when victimized Congolese and Rwandan communities worry that the stigmatization and torment of Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese calling on them to return to Rwanda is not ending.

The Security Council brief will be provided by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the DR Congo (MONUSCO), Bintou Keita.

Kinshasa has blamed the deteriorating security situation in eastern DR Congo on the resurgence of the M23 rebel group which it claims is backed by Kigali.

Kigali has repeatedly stressed that it has no intention of being drawn into an intra-Congolese matter, but Kinshasa claims that the M23 rebels are supported by Kigali.

Kigali blames the Congolese government for working with the Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda (FDLR), a genocidal armed group operating in eastern DR Congo. Members of the FDLR masterminded the 1994 genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda. 

After killing more than one million people, 28 years ago, they fled into eastern DR Congo where they continue to spread genocide ideology and hate speech.