Mahama (Rwanda): Congolese Tutsi refugees from Mahama joined their peers to alert the world

This Wednesday, it was the turn of the Mahama camp’s Congolese Tutsi refugees in the Kirehe district, to add their voice to that of other Congolese exiled in Rwanda to demand a return to peace in their country, which would allow their repatriation. They speak out against the government of the DRC as well as the silence of the international community which they say contributes to the deterioration of the situation in eastern Congo. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

At the Mahama camp, these Congolese refugees went around the camp using the main road which bypasses the said site. They had signs, well made and crafted, with writings in French and English. But most of them do not speak these two languages, we learned.

The demonstrators also had a microphone that their leaders used to carry their voices far and wide.

This large, so-called peaceful demonstration was directed against the Democratic Republic of Congo continuing to violate their rights and those of members of their communities remaining in the country.

They are demanding an immediate end to the massacres in order to return home.
They also denounced what they describe as the inaction of the international community which indifferently witnesses the massacres perpetrated against the Tutsis of North Kivu, the Banyamulenge of South Kivu and the Hema of Ituri in the east of the vast countries of central Africa.

”It lasts a long time and we have had enough of it. We protest against this genocide which is being committed against our loved ones. We also condemn the complicit silence of the international community,” the refugee leaders could be heard chanting, slogans echoed by the demonstrators.

Most of the Congolese recently transferred to this camp, initially built for Burundian refugees, have fled the DRC since 2010.

”I am getting impatient with this situation. Why is the international community not reacting to save us? The massacres are committed in full view of everyone, but they remain silent. We ask the international community to act without delay to stop these killings,” a demonstrator told the local press.

Supervised by the Rwandan police, the protesting refugees then returned inside the camp.

There too, they continued to chant their slogans in the streets of the different areas of the Mahama camp in a rhythmic manner, witnesses say.

“We protest against the killings perpetrated against our Tutsi families who remained in Congo. We demand a return to peace in Congo so that we can return. We are protesting against the ongoing genocide, we are tired of being refugees,” one could also read on their signs.

Such demonstrations began on Monday in the Kiziba and Nkamira camps in the west of the country, a border region with the DRC.

Other Burundian refugees, with whom they live together in the same camp, remained with many questions about this “peaceful demonstration”.

“Here at the camp we don’t have a printing press to make these signs and banners. And then we don’t have the means to do it. Which suggests that there is an invisible and powerful hand behind these steps,” analyzes an intellectual from the Mahama camp, denouncing a reaction of double standards.

“I am sure that for us such protests would not be allowed. We tried in 2020 to rebel against forced repatriations in some way, our movement was stifled even before the end of the preparations and certain leaders were imprisoned,” he recalls.

The Mahama camp, located in the Kirehe district, further east of Rwanda, is the largest refugee camp in the land of a thousand hills.

It has more than 63 thousand refugees. The Congolese are estimated at 20 thousand, the rest being Burundians. The latter fled the 2015 crisis which was triggered by another controversial mandate of the late President Pierre Nkurunziza.

Note: The photos used were taken by our colleagues at Igihe.com