The narratives around the conflict in eastern DR Congo have been distorted by biased reporting, downplaying violence against Congolese Tutsi communities, according to conflict discourse researcher and language analyst Bojana Coulibaly.

Coulibaly, who was born in Bosnia-Herzegovina, lived through the 1992 war that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia. As a teenager, she and her family fled through refugee camps in Austria and Italy before settling in France as political refugees. There, she completed her secondary education and went on to earn a PhD in African Studies with a specialisation in stylistic and discourse analysis.

She noted that the current discourse mirrors decades of exclusionary ideology. "Speaking with people in Masisi and Rutshuru, it became clear this isn’t just about recent events. The roots of this conflict go back over 30 years, even before the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. The ideology that dehumanises Congolese Tutsi is deeply embedded.”

Coulibaly also criticised some French media outlets, saying, "French media such as France 24, TV5 Monde, RFI and at some level Jeune Afrique, tend to actually espouse this narrative, either they’re just repeating what the other said without any proper investigation, or they are forced to follow a certain discourse.”

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She emphasised the need for political education and legal action to combat hate speech and divisionism. "There needs to be a proper education against divisionism, call out hate speech, officially criminalise it. That has to happen everywhere, not just in Rwanda, but also in Burundi and in Congo.”

"We need to refocus on research ethics, promote truth rather than these narratives that are just fueling conflict,” she added.