A genocide has been simmering in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo for the past few months, since the resurgence of fighting between a coalition of forces loyal to the Congolese government and M23, one of the rebel groups operating in the restive region.

On several occasions, senior government and military officials have come on record to call upon the population to take up arms and kill Kinyarwanda-speaking compatriots or even Rwandans living in the neighbouring country. They accuse them of backing M23.

Such threats have been followed by widespread attacks on the targeted group, and no perpetrator has been brought to book.

The latest is a distress call that has been made by M23 group calling for the international community to take action to avert this xenophobia before it metamorphoses into a full-blown genocide.

The M23 might be a protagonist in the ongoing fight but then it does not mean the allegations they make of targeting innocent civilians should be taken lightly, especially when they are backed by evidence.

It is worth noting that FDLR, a militia group that is mainly made up of people responsible for the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda are also within the ranks of the Congolese military, and are now leveraging this legitimacy derived from the state to continue their genocidal agenda, especially on Congolese of Tutsi origin.

The situation is also not helped by the seeming faltering of the peace process that aims at silencing guns in the region through means of negotiations between all parties involved.

Every time the peace process fails or is frustrated like has been the case of the Nairobi Process and other initiatives put in place to pacify the region, it only exposes more innocent civilians.

It is therefore incumbent upon the parties involved in the conflict to take meaningful steps to get a lasting solution to this conflict because it is primarily within their means, while the others can only play a facilitation role.