{"id":1169,"date":"2025-09-25T07:48:56","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T07:48:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africadiplomacy.net\/?p=1169"},"modified":"2025-09-25T07:48:57","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T07:48:57","slug":"nduhungirehe-challenges-tshisekedi-over-genocide-remarks-at-un-assembly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africadiplomacy.net\/?p=1169","title":{"rendered":"Nduhungirehe Challenges Tshisekedi Over \u2018Genocide\u2019 Remarks at UN Assembly"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Rwanda\u2019s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Ambassador Olivier Nduhungirehe, has dismissed remarks by Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) President F\u00e9lix Tshisekedi, who told the United Nations that a genocide was unfolding in eastern Congo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking at the 80th UN General Assembly on September 24, President Tshisekedi urged the international community to acknowledge what he called a \u201csilent genocide\u201d in the eastern provinces of his country. He did not specify which group was being targeted but insisted the violence was beyond the scale of an ordinary conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Responding on his official X account, Minister Nduhungirehe accused Tshisekedi of deflecting responsibility for atrocities allegedly carried out by the Congolese army (FARDC) and allied militias. \u201cHe has an army that collaborates with and integrates members of the FDLR the Rwandan genocidal militia into the FARDC, alongside Nyatura and other ethnically based groups. He even created and armed the militia known as Wazalendo,\u201d Nduhungirehe wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The minister pointed to documented attacks by these groups, including the burning of more than 300 homes belonging to Congolese Tutsis in Nturo village, Masisi Territory, in October 2023. He also cited incidents in which militias killed civilians, burned people alive, and threatened Congolese Tutsis with expulsion. \u201cHe remained silent when videos circulated of children armed by Wazalendo being asked if they were ready to kill Rwandans. He did not react when Wazalendo leaders gave Congolese Tutsis, including Banyamulenge, ten days to leave DRC and \u2018return to Rwanda,\u2019\u201d Nduhungirehe added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, peace talks between the Congolese government and the M23 rebel group continue in Doha, Qatar, but heavy fighting persists. According to M23 spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka, FARDC used Sukhoi-25 fighter jets and CH-4 drones to bomb civilian-populated areas in North Kivu on September 19. \u201cKinshasa\u2019s regime committed massacres and grave war crimes by targeting heavily populated areas of Bibwe, Chysto, Hembe, and surrounding villages,\u201d Kanyuka said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nduhungirehe argued that Tshisekedi had no basis to accuse others of genocide while the Congolese army and its allied militias commit atrocities. \u201cAfter all this, he dares to stand before the United Nations and accuse others of genocide?\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The escalating conflict has cast doubt on the DRC\u2019s commitment to the Washington peace agreement signed with Rwanda in June 2025, while the Doha talks with M23 have yet to yield concrete progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"420\" height=\"265\" data-id=\"1170\" src=\"https:\/\/africadiplomacy.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/af990a690ca2c312e0d090d1060e61.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1170\" srcset=\"https:\/\/africadiplomacy.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/af990a690ca2c312e0d090d1060e61.jpg 420w, https:\/\/africadiplomacy.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/af990a690ca2c312e0d090d1060e61-300x189.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 420px) 100vw, 420px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Author: Justinmind HARERIMANA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rwanda\u2019s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Ambassador Olivier Nduhungirehe, has dismissed remarks by Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) President F\u00e9lix Tshisekedi, who told the United Nations that a genocide was unfolding in eastern Congo. Speaking at the 80th UN General Assembly on September 24, President Tshisekedi urged the international community to acknowledge what [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/africadiplomacy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/africadiplomacy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/africadiplomacy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africadiplomacy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africadiplomacy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1169"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/africadiplomacy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1172,"href":"https:\/\/africadiplomacy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1169\/revisions\/1172"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africadiplomacy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/africadiplomacy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africadiplomacy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africadiplomacy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}