On January 26, 2025, 200 homes in Rwanda’s Rubavu district were reduced to ashes, torched by the Democratic Republic of Congo’s army (FARDC) from Goma airport. That month, 16 Rwandans lost their lives, the latest victims of a decades-long campaign by the FDLR, a genocidal militia now embedded within the DR Congo’s military. On March 27, 2025, Rwanda’s Foreign Affairs Minister Olivier Nguhungirehe addressed the UN press corps in New York, laying bare this crisis: his nation faces a relentless enemy, backed by DR Congo and enabled by an ineffective UN mission, MONUSCO. Yet, the press responded with a single, repetitive question – “How many troops do you have in DR Congo?” – as if Rwandan blood held no weight. Western journalists, tethered to biased UN reports, sideline Rwanda’s plight, amplifying a narrative that shields the guilty and dismisses the victims. The minister’s account was stark: over 20 attacks since 2018, all originating from Eastern DR Congo, part of a 30-year war waged by the FDLR, a group sanctioned for its genocidal roots. Once known as ALIR, the FDLR earned a U.S. terrorist designation after slaughtering tourists in Uganda. In 2018, nine Rwandans, including 13-year-old Ornella and a 17-year-old boy, were killed by the FDLR splinter group ‘Urunana’ in Rwanda’s southwest. In 2022, FARDC shells struck Rwandan soil in March, May, and June, timed to disrupt a Commonwealth Summit, which DR Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi vowed to sabotage, boasting, “I will fire on Kigali without leaving DR Congo and raise the Congolese flag on their capital.” January 2025 brought fresh horrors: 16 more Rwandans killed, homes razed, and schools and hospitals deliberately targeted by DR Congo’s FARDC, now openly allied with the FDLR. Evidence was undeniable – two weeks prior, Brigadier General Ezechiel Gakwerere, an FDLR veteran of the 1994 genocide, was captured in FARDC uniform by M23 and handed to Rwanda. This is no mere border conflict; it’s a 30-year assault on Rwanda, fueled by Kinshasa’s support for a militia born from genocide perpetrators. Yet, an RFI journalist brushed it off, asking, “What attack in 2024?” – interrupting four times, fixated on troop counts rather than the dead. The press corps ignored DR Congo’s role, the FDLR’s violence, and Rwanda’s suffering, chasing a narrative over facts. MONUSCO, the UN mission with 17,000 troops and a $2 billion annual budget, bears equal blame. Tasked with neutralizing Eastern DR Congo’s armed groups, it has failed for 30 years to curb the FDLR, now integrated into the Congolese army. The minister called it what it is: not just incompetence, but complicity in Rwanda’s pain. When the UN claims Rwanda has 7,000 troops in DR Congo, why trust a mission that can’t stop a genocidal militia yet counts boots with confidence? Western media, however, parrot these reports, ignoring MONUSCO’s failures and the FDLR’s bloodshed. The press corps’ obsession with “troops in DR Congo” reveals a deeper bias: Rwanda cast as aggressor, Congo as victim, and M23 as Kigali’s pawn. Never mind that M23 is Congolese, fighting its own battles, or that Rwanda’s border defenses are a response to real threats. Journalists didn’t seek truth; they sought a soundbite to align with UN and DR Congo claims. This isn’t reporting – it’s selective storytelling, propped up by MONUSCO’s flawed data and deaf to Rwanda’s dead. The result is propaganda, not journalism. MONUSCO’s inaction and Congo’s FDLR alliance have killed Rwandans for decades, yet the UN spins reports to deflect blame, and Western media comply, too lazy or complicit to challenge the source. The minister pointed to a solution – the African-led Luanda-Nairobi process for peace – but no journalist engaged. They preferred chasing phantom troops over confronting the FDLR’s genocidal echoes or MONUSCO’s 30-year failure. As Rwanda approaches April 7, 2025, marking 31 years since the 1994 Tutsi genocide, the global press proves it hasn’t evolved: it silences victims, props up a broken system, and calls it news. True journalism hears the dead, not just the dogma. Rwanda’s story isn’t in troop tallies – it’s in the graves Western media refuses to acknowledge. It’s time for reporting that honors the truth, not a narrative that buries it.
