Angolan journalist, producer and TV host Hariana Verás who built a career as a Washington-based correspondent for Angola’s Televisão Pública de Angola (TPA) has, in the past few months, increasingly shown a penchant to disseminate misinformation about Rwanda and the AFC/M23 movement in eastern DR Congo.
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Though Verás has not visited Rwanda she has been to Kinshasa and Bujumbura several times in recent months. She has increasingly disseminated narratives hostile to Rwanda and aligned with positions advanced by authorities in Kinshasa and Bujumbura.
It has been alleged that Verás – who has not reported about, among others, the atrocities committed by the Congolese government against the Banyamulenge community in DR Congo’s South Kivu Province – is on Kinshasa’s payroll, claims she has not publicly addressed.
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On Saturday, February 7, Verás posted a short video on X, showing herself holding a microphone branded with DR Congo’s public broadcaster (RTNC), and said: "Moments ago at the White House, we sought President Trump&039;s response regarding the violation of the Washington Accord and his administration's plans to advance peace efforts in Sudan.”
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Last year, on December 4, President Paul Kagame and his Congolese counterpart Felix Tshisekedi, signed the peace accord in Washington DC, witnessed by US President Donald Trump. The agreement, officially known as the Washington Accords, is a result of more than eight months of US-brokered negotiations between Rwanda and DR Congo and has no connection to Sudan.
‘Someone should have to explain this fraud’
Reacting to Verás’ post, Rwanda’s foreign minister Amb Olivier Nduhungirehe criticised what he described as deceptive conduct.
He noted that Verás often presents herself as speaking on behalf of "African people” in Washington, yet has travelled twice within a year to Kinshasa, where she met President Tshisekedi, accepted a gift from him on camera, and broadcast her interview with Burundian President Évariste Ndayishimiye exclusively on Congolese state television.
The minister added: "Lately, she was going around at the Capitol with extremely biased questions, displaying her unprofessionalism and obsession against Rwanda.
"And today, we are now discovering that she was holding an RTNC microphone at the White House; yet, she had never revealed that she was on Kinshasa payroll. Someone should have to explain this fraud.”
‘Danger in misinformation, misrepresentation, and propaganda that incites hate’
In reaction to the Angolan journalist’s post on X, Ugandan journalist Andrew Mwenda said: "Please don’t insult journalism by calling this woman one. She is a political hack paid to tarnish the name of Rwanda.”
According to Mwenda, what Verás doesn’t know, "if she cares at all, is that her lies cannot hide the truths about” DR Congo’s violations of the Washington Accords.
Violations or failures to comply by Kinshasa include failure to neutralize FDLR, a terrorist group formed by the perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. A major element of the Washington Accords was the neutralization of this Kinshasa-backed genocidal militia which the Congolese government has *failed to* act on thereby violating its commitment to remove the threat posed to Rwanda.
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The Congolese army (FARDC) and its allies continue to launch attacks – especially using fighter jets and drones in operations targeting civilian populations – and has failed to honour ceasefires. Kinshasa continues as well to arm, train, and support local militias, collectively known as Wazalendo [Swahili for patriots], instead of disarming them.
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Kinshasa also continues to talk peace but maintains an approach favouring continued fighting in eastern DR Congo, where the AFC/M23 rebel movement is determined to battle Tshisekedi’s government, accusing it – among other things – of weaponizing ethnic division to marginalize specific communities, particularly the Congolese Tutsi, by denying them citizenship rights and subjecting them to violence.
According to Alex Mvuka Ntung, a researcher and analyst on the Great Lakes Region, the danger of Verás’ reporting "lies in misinformation, misrepresentation, and propaganda that incites hate.”
Mvuka told The New Times that the journalist has become an agent of DR Congo’s public broadcaster and Congolese information minister Patrick Muyaya’s communication team.
He added: "Given the country’s political environment, there is a lucrative reward involved. Her partiality is a serious issue. Hariana [Verás] reminds me of the roles played by some journalists in mass atrocities - disseminating hate speech and creating propaganda that justifies violence.”