Experts have raised concerns over rising signs of genocide ideology in the Great Lakes region, especially in DR Congo, urging for immediate international intervention and coordinated regional action to prevent the situation from escalating.
They said this during the International Conference on Genocide Prevention, held on Wednesday, April 8, at Intare Conference Arena in Rusororo.
Speaking at the event, the Minister of National Unity and Civic Engagement, Jean-Damascène Bizimana, said that violence against Congolese Tutsi communities reflects patterns similar to those that preceded the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
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"Two other concerns requiring scientific reflection concern us, namely the growing genocide ideology, which is helped by social networks, and the persistence of mass indoctrination, supported, educated, publicly and directly by the government of DR Congo,” Bizimana said.
"Everyone knows it. These authorities support the FDLR, which committed the Genocide against the Tutsi, and I must say that this is a fact never seen in a modern way.”
He noted that some officials in DR Congo, including Minister of Communication Patrick Muyaya and former Justice Minister Constant Mutamba, have blended hate speech with state policy. Even Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege has faced criticism for allegedly amplifying the "plundering” myth, which aligns with colonial narratives that devalue the Tutsi.
Minister Bizimana criticised the international community for remaining largely silent in the face of these developments, drawing parallels with past failures to prevent the Genocide against the Tutsi.
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"Already in 1945, the United Nations instituted a charter to prevent genocide, and in 1948 adopted the Convention on its prevention and punishment. But prevention remains a problem,” he said, calling for a deeper, evidence-based analysis and urgent action before the situation escalates further.
"It is time to say that we see, observe, know, denounce, and we say stop to violence, to indifference, and to complicity,” Bizimana said, noting that the persistence of genocide ideology threatens not only Rwanda but the wider Great Lakes region.
According to Chaloka Beyani, the UN Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide, concerted efforts are need to prevent atrocities from happening.
"The crime of genocide cannot be committed without state failure or complicity, and because it is a process and it takes time to plan and execute, therein lies an opportunity to prevent it,” Beyani said.
Beyani, whose office has previously alerted the world about the warning signs of genocidal violence in eastern DR Congo, emphasised that prevention requires coordinated action at all levels, including the UN, regional organisations, governments, civil society, religious institutions, women and youth groups, and the media.
"We must translate early warning into early action. Our collective responsibility is to prevent genocide,” he said.
"Denial of genocide is the repudiation of judicial decisions, and thus undermines the rule of law, demeaning the victims, and worst of all, sowing seeds of recurrence of similar crimes.”
He urged universal adoption and implementation of international protocols and conventions on genocide prevention, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
"Impunity significantly contributes to recurrences of deadly conflicts ... we should stand together and combat impunity and hold accountable those found capable and culpable,” he said.
Dani Dayan, Chairman of Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, stressed that genocide begins long before violence is enacted.
"It begins with ideas ... with words, words that strip people of their humanity, with narratives that turn neighbours into enemies, and differences into neighbours,” Dayan said.
"What Rwanda has aptly defined as genocide ideology reminds us that mass violence is preferred long before action. And it reminds us also that education, grounded in truth and in historical integrity, is one of the most powerful tools to prevent it.”
Dayan emphasised that prevention requires vigilance, education, and the moral courage of states and leaders. "Responsibility to defend life. Responsibility to control hatred. Responsibility to act before it is too late.”