Minister questions credibility of Angolan journalist Hariana Verás

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. ALSO READ: Banyamulenge petition US govt over attacks on Minembwe 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. ALSO READ: Twirwaneho denounces Burundian forces over hostage-taking, bombings in South Kivu 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's response regarding the violation of the Washington Accord and his administration's plans to advance peace efforts in Sudan.” ALSO READ: Kagame says Washington Accords offer clearest path to peace 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. She pretends to speak for the African people in Washington. Yet, she travelled to Kinshasa twice in a year, where she met President Tshisekedi; she accepted a gift from him before cameras, and broadcasted her interview with President Ndayishimiye only on DRC public television... https://t.co/QrLCWu6j3T — Olivier J.P. Nduhungirehe (@onduhungirehe) February 7, 2026 ‘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.”

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Minister questions credibility of Angolan journalist Hariana Verás