April 6th, 2024 marked the 30th anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide. The Rwandan Genocide left an indelible mark on the region and the African continent at large. As the world stood witness to the systematic slaughter of over 800,000 Tutsis and Hutus, the reverberations of this tragedy continue to shape the destiny of an entire region, most notably, the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Rwanda’s involvement in the DRC today can be traced back to the aftermath of the Genocide in 1994. Rwanda’s government has been accused of providing support to various rebel groups operating in the eastern DRC.

We will explore how historical grievances, political maneuvering, and economic interests have converged to perpetuate instability in the region. We will unravel the tangled threads that bind the Rwandan Genocide to the plight of the Democratic Republic of the Congo today.

U.S. Out of Africa: Voices from the Struggle

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin spoke with Maurice Carney, who is the Executive Director of Friends of the Congo

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin: During Leopold's reign, millions of native Congolese were killed and countless others maimed and disabled and yet since then and up till today, there is so little attention given to the Congo by either corporate or more progressive media. What are your explanations for this?

Maurice Carney: King Leopold II reigned over the so-called Congo Free State from 1885 - 1908, a 23-year period of death, slavery, brutality, savagery, and destruction. It prompted Booker T Washington to write an essay on the King's brutal reign entitled “Cruelty in the Congo” and Mark Twain to pen King Leopold's Soliloquy. During Leopold II's 23 year reign the population was decimated by about half an estimated 10 million Congolese perished. Both Washington and Twain, renowned figures, were a part of a global movement to wrest the Congo away from King Leopold II and stop the mass genocide in the Congo.

At the dawn of the 21st century, an estimated six million Congolese have perished in large-part because of the scramble for strategic minerals that are vital to major global industries from automobile, to technology, electronics, military and more. However, we have not seen a similar outcry from contemporary renowned figures as was the case during the era of Twain and Washington. This is part of the reason for the silence surrounding the Congo – lack of high profile figures speaking to the crisis in the Congo. There are several other reasons as well:

1. Due to a global white supremacist system, African lives are less valued therefore, millions of Africans can vanish from the face of the earth and it not capture the attention from the rest of the world;

2. The racist tropes that exist concerning Africa as the dark continent and Congo as the heart of darkness gives one license to dismiss what happens there as mysterious, dark, opaque and not worthy of serious inquiry because its inhabitants are believed to possess immutable violent traits that are beyond redemption; and

3. The perpetrators of the mass crimes and beneficiaries of the plunder of Congo's riches are either in alignment with the West and the US empire or represent the political, economic and military arms of the empire, therefore the media is less likely to shine a light or focus on the atrocities being committed in the Congo by western allies. In short, the enemy of the Congolese people is the West itself and those carrying out the crimes such as Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda are major African agents or proxies of the west.

AWB: Why were western powers so fearful of Patrice Lumumba and the movement that brought him to power and are there elements in the Congo today that are the descendants of that movement and have assumed the role of resistance to the current status quo?

MC: Western powers were fearful of Lumumba because they could neither corrupt or control him. It is for this reason that Malcolm X called him the greatest African to ever walk the African continent. Malcolm said "They couldn’t buy him, they couldn’t frighten him, they couldn’t reach him." In addition, Lumumba made it clear that he wanted Congo's spectacular riches to benefit first and foremost the Congolese people. He unabashedly stated that the Congolese would finally determine their own affairs, control the land, the wealth, the resources of the Congo for the benefit of Congo and Africa. He established an agreement with Kwame Nkrumah that Congo would serve as the capital of Nkrumah's Pan African project of a United States of Africa. In this Pan African undertaking, Congo would serve as the economic engine for the development and industrialization of the African continent.

Many Congolese youth formations have embraced the teachings and ideas of Lumumba and have been drawing inspiration from Lumumba as they resist their local elites who have sold them out and the regional neo-colonial agents who have ravaged their country. These youth maintain an anti-imperialist stance and aspire for a free and liberated Congo as Lumumba did. This ode to Lumumba captures the spirit and aspirations of the Congolese youth.

AWB: Talk about how the Rwandan Genocide of 1994 affected the Congo then and now and also about the role of Uganda in the current geopolitical situation in the Congo?

MC: The over quarter century conflict in the Congo is a byproduct of the Rwandan genocide. The Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) led by Paul Kagame captured power in the midst of the 1994 genocide, which led to the predominantly Hutu ethnic group flooding into then Zaire. Kagame and his RPF pursued them into Zaire and unleashed a massive killing spree which prompted the United Nations to say in a 2010 report that if the crimes committed by the Rwandan army in the Congo were to be presented in front of a competent court, they could be tried for crimes of genocide. In 1996, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and Angola set up a rebel group called the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire (AFDL in French). With the blessings and backing of the United States, these nations set out to overthrow the U.S. installed dictatorial regime in Zaire headed by Joseph Desire Mobutu. The U.S. had maintained Mobutu in power for over three decades (1965 – 1997). Mobutu was in failing health and his demise was inevitable. The United States was not able to control or fundamentally influence the burgeoning democratic movement in the country, therefore it opted to cast its lot with its agents and/or proxies in Rwanda, led by Paul Kagame and Uganda, led by Yoweri Museveni. The Clinton Administration dubbed them the new breed of Pan African leaders or renaissance leaders. They launched an invasion of Zaire in 1996 using as an alibi, the pursuit of the Hutu in the Congo who had committed the genocide in Rwanda. The four nations spearheaded by the US-backed Rwanda and Uganda were successful in overthrowing the Mobutu regime in May of 1997. They installed the spokesperson of the AFDL, Laurent Kabila. Rwanda and Uganda quickly fell out with Kabila and invaded the Congo again in 1998, this time to remove the person they had installed. Angola did not join Rwanda and Uganda in the second invasion but instead sided with a Pan African response from Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola, members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to beat back the US-backed invasion of the newly renamed Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Rwanda and Uganda's 1996 and 1998 invasions of the Congo triggered the loss of an estimated six million Congolese which is the deadliest conflict in the world since World War Two. Rwanda's and Uganda's wars of aggression and plunder has persisted for over 25 years. They have been able to get away with war crimes, crimes against humanity and possibly genocide primarily because the United States has provided political and diplomatic cover for them. U.S. Cover has facilitated rampant impunity, fostered lack of accountability, and prevented justice from being achieved for the Congolese people. It is because of this climate of impunity and lack of accountability that the Rwandan government had been able to resuscitate the M23 militia group in 2021. The M23 would not have the force and presence that it does without Rwanda's backing through soldier contribution, equipment and logistical support and financing. Since Rwanda and Uganda initial invasions of 1996 and 1998, the preferred option of intervention and destabilization has been through proxies such as the M23. This has enabled both countries to plunder Congo's timber, tin, coltan, gold, and many more minerals. Rwanda has become the number one producer of coltan in the world even though they have a limited amount of coltan compared to Congo which possesses 64% of the world's reserve of coltan. Rwanda's export of Congolese minerals has boosted its export earnings which in turn reinforces international confidence in the country's bond offerings.

AWB: At the root of much of what goes on in the Congo is its vast mineral wealth. What needs to happen to ensure that wealth is first used for the needs of the Congolese people BEFORE foreign interests?

MC: Several things:

1. An acceleration of the education and mobilization campaign underway among grassroots leaders in the Congo who are engaged in a concerted undertaking to educate the Congolese masses about their spectacular wealth and their responsibility in assuring that they are the ones who must control it;

2. The strengthening of local institutions and communities so that they can be better organized and better positioned to defend their interests and confront their local elites;

3. The oppressed masses and workers of the Congo will have to arrive at a level of organization whereby they can cleanse their entire political class and replace them with veritable representatives that are products of their movements – something akin to the water wars of Bolivia.  If this is not achieved, the status quo will prevail. The entire political class is corrupt and in the hock to foreign interests, with very few exceptions;

4. We on the outside can be in solidarity with this effort and lend support by amplifying the progressive voices in the Congo, providing them with platforms to tell their stories and build with other progressive forces throughout the globe, and support their organizations and movements in concrete ways, which can be done at freecongo.org. In addition, it is vital that we put pressure on the corporate and political forces outside working against the Congolese people, especially those forces in the United States.

AWB: What gives you the most hope for a brighter future for the masses of the Congolese people and how can people reading this contribute to that future? 

MC: What gives us at Friends of the Congo the most hope for the future of the Congo are its youth and others on the frontlines of the struggle whether in the capital Kinshasa, a city of 14 million people, or the Indigenous formations in the heart of the rainforest, or those organizing on the frontlines of the conflict to provide relief to displaced people while engaged in a transformational decolonial popular education initiatives or the leaders in the rich mining areas of the country who are rescuing children from the mines and organizing women and other workers into collectives and formations that fight for better wages and conditions whether in the industrial or artisanal mining sectors. These oppressed masses of youth, women, workers have demonstrated incredible resilience in the face of enormous repression and extreme poverty, by devising creative and innovative organized efforts that will ultimately fulfill Lumumba's vision of a free and liberated Congo and Africa. It is vital that people throughout the world join in solidarity and support these frontline forces to accelerate the pursuit of a free Congo. People can go to freecongo.org to join this movement. It is a movement that is as important today as the Free South Africa movement was yesterday.

News and Analysis

In Praise of Blood: Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front

April 10, 2024 by Ann Garrison

In commemoration of the 30-year anniversary of the Rwanda Genocide, BAR is republishing two previous pieces about the atrocity that unfolded in 1994. This piece by Ann Garrison was published in 2019.

Kagame: Murderer of Millions in Congo and Rwanda

April 10, 2024 by Glen Ford

In what may be the world’s most bizarre spectacle, notables from around the globe this year pay homage to Rwandan President Paul Kagame, as if he is the savior of Africa. “For 20 years, Kagame has posed as the soldier who stopped the Rwandan genocide, when all evidence and logic point to him as the main perpetrator of the crime.” This piece by the late Glen Ford was originally published in 2014.

How Paul Kagame Deliberately Sacrificed the Tutsi

March 20, 2024 by Ann Garrison

This year, 2024, marks the 30th anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide. Ann Garrison reviews “How Paul Kagame Deliberately Sacrificed the Tutsi,” one of many important books that challenge the prevailing narrative about the events of 1994.

Crisis in the Congo: How the West Fuels the Bloodshed in the DRC

February 20, 2024 by Breakthrough News

At least 150,000 people have been displaced in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) amid an escalation of fighting between the Congolese armed forces (FARDC) and the M23 rebel group, a proxy force backed by Rwanda. Over one year after Angola brokered a ceasefire deal, the M23 has continued its offensive, leading to a new wave of mass displacement in the country. Kambale Musavuli of the Center for Research on the Congo details the latest developments of the conflict and breaks down how Western countries, including the US and European Union member states, are complicit in the ongoing violence and destabilization in the DRC.

For peace in the Congo, Rwanda and Uganda must be brought to justice

October 11, 2022 by People’s Dispatch

Kambale Musavuli talks about the first installment of reparations that Uganda has paid to the Democratic Republic of Congo for war crimes and atrocities in the 90s. He also explains why the process of ensuring justice is far from complete