State propaganda has "definitely reached limitless heights” in DR Congo’s capital, foreign minister Amb Olivier Nduhungirehe said in a post on X, on Saturday, January 3, dismissing claims from Kinshasa that Rwandan soldiers had been arrested on Congolese territory.

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This came following media reports there that the Congolese army (FARDC) presented seven Rwandan soldiers and eight civilians from neighbouring countries, in Kinshasa, on the same day, who were – as claimed – captured during fighting against AFC/M23 rebels in North Kivu and South Kivu provinces.

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"NO member of the Rwandan Defence Force (RDF) has been arrested in Congo or presented to the press this morning. This is a mediocre farce that even its own directors don&039;t believe in,” Nduhungirehe said, sharing "one piece of evidence” for Kinshasa’s "hoax.”

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The minister highlighted a picture of "the infamous ‘Ndayambaje Abuba,’ whom Colonel Guillaume Ndjike, then the FARDC spokesperson in North Kivu, had presented to us on February 16, 2024,” as one of the so-called RDF soldiers, presented to the press in Kinshasa on Saturday.

He recalled how, in early 2024, Ndjike had presented the Abuba "as an RDF soldier from ‘a place called Kayonza’ (without a serial number) and wearing a brand-new military uniform.”

The same young man was presented in mid-January 2024, "in very dirty civilian clothes,” as a Rwandan soldier captured on Congolese soil.

‘Trying to make Ekenge scandal forgotten’

The minister added: "Even in trying to make the [Sylvain] Ekenge scandal forgotten, the Congolese government is acting in an extremely mediocre way.”

He was referring to discriminatory remarks made by the former spokesperson of DR Congo's armed forces during a televised interview on December 27 that sparked condemnation from political leaders, civil society organisations, and international observers.

During a programme aired on DR Congo’s national broadcaster, RTNC, where he appeared as a guest, Ekenge said: "When you marry a Tutsi woman, you have to be careful.

"When you are a leader, like a great traditional chief, you are given a woman, but you will receive at your home a member of her family who will be presented as a cousin or a nephew, when in fact it is the person who will come to have children with your wife in the house, and you will be told that the children are born Tutsi because the Tutsi race is superior to their ethnicities."

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Ekenge’s anti-Tutsi rhetoric also followed statements attributed to Jean Claude Mubenga, a close ally of Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and a presidential communicator, who referred to the Tutsi as "cockroaches,” "infiltrators,” and "viruses” – dehumanising labels reminiscent of the names used in the lead-up to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Tshisekedi has previously welcomed politicians and figures, such as Justin Bitakwira, who have openly called for violence against Tutsi communities.

Reacting to Ekenge's comments, last month, Nduhungirehe said that instead of promoting calm during the festive season, Congolese authorities took "the opposite path, plunging headlong into genocidal horror.”

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The minister accused Congolese authorities of tolerating, and in some cases encouraging, hate speech against Congolese Tutsi communities including Banyamulenge in South Kivu Province.

A vast military coalition comprising thousands and thousands of Congolese army forces (FARDC), Burundian troops, Congolese militias known as Wazalendo, genocidal militia from Rwanda (FDLR), and mercenaries from Latin America and Europe, are battling the AFC/M23 movement in the east of the country.

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The FDLR are a Kinshasa-backed terrorist militia founded in mid-2000 by remnants of the masterminds of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

The AFC/M23 is fighting for governance that supports basic human rights, secures all Congolese citizens, and addresses the root causes of conflict. The rebellion has vowed to uproot tribalism, nepotism, corruption, and the genocide ideology spread by FDLR, among other vices, widespread in DR Congo.

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For many years, the militia has been spreading violence and genocide ideology targeting Congolese Tutsi communities in eastern DR Congo.