South Kivu : the Banyamulenge GAKONDO coalition alerts Washington to an “extermination campaign” carried out with the support of Burundi

SOS Médias Burundi

Bukavu, October 23, 2025 – The global GAKONDO coalition, a group of Banyamulenge community organizations, sent an urgent letter to Massad Fares Boulos, Senior Advisor to the President of the United States for Africa. In this letter, the group denounces a planned extermination campaign against Banyamulenge civilians in the Hauts-Plateaux of South Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which it claims is being carried out with the support of Burundi.

Dated October 20, 2025, the letter accuses the Burundi National Defense Force (FDNB) of joining the DRC Armed Forces (FARDC) and pro-government Wazalendo militias in military operations around Minembwe. More than 10,000 Burundian soldiers are reportedly participating in these operations, preventing any humanitarian aid from reaching the region.

“This deliberate blockade, accompanied by military attacks, constitutes a crime against humanity,” the coalition denounces, citing the alleged use of drones and fighter jets operating from Bujumbura, Burundi’s commercial capital, and Kisangani, the capital of Tshopo province in eastern Congo.

A minority under siege

The GAKONDO coalition believes that the Banyamulenge community, a Tutsi minority living in the Hauts-Plateaux of South Kivu, has been subjected to systematic violence since 2017. According to the letter, the roads connecting Minembwe to Uvira, Fizi, and Baraka have been cut off, and basic goods—salt, sugar, oil, soap, fuel—no longer reach the population.

“The Banyamulenge are today besieged by a regime that is supposed to protect them,” the group accuses, demanding that the FDNB be held accountable for its role in this military campaign.

Call for US intervention

The group calls on Washington to pressure Kinshasa and Gitega to obtain an immediate end to hostilities and the opening of a humanitarian corridor to Minembwe. It also requests the deployment of international observers and the prosecution of those responsible for these alleged crimes.

The letter was copied to several international leaders and institutions, including UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Burundi President Évariste Ndayishimiye, and DRC President Félix Tshisekedi, as well as to the heads of state of Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Uganda, and to the High Representative of the European Union, Kaja Kallas.

Fears of ethnic cleansing

Minembwe, populated mainly by Banyamulenge, is a group of villages located in the Fizi territory. This pastoralist community has lived in chronic insecurity for several years, linked to attacks by the FARDC, local militias, and foreign groups.

Mr. Bernard Maingain, a member of the group of lawyers representing the Banyamulenge, Congolese Tutsi, and Hema, expresses his alarm :

“There is a terrible situation that is taking on the appearance of ethnic cleansing, even genocide. If the situation continues like this, we will end up creating Tutsi reserves in eastern Congo, as happened to the Indians in North America,” Mr. Bernard Maingain told SOS Médias Burundi in a separate interview on the issue.

According to activists, more than 1,500 members of the Banyamulenge community have been killed since 2017.

The M23 and local alliances

The M23, a former Tutsi rebel group that took up arms again at the end of 2021, accuses the Congolese authorities of failing to honor their reintegration commitments. Since the beginning of the year, its rebels, affiliated with the Congo River Alliance (AFC), have controlled several strategic mineral-rich towns in the provinces of North and South Kivu, as well as the capitals of both Kivus.

In Minembwe, the M23 has a powerful local ally : Twirwaneho, an armed group composed of members of the Banyamulenge community, strengthening their presence and influence in the region.

Congolese authorities accuse Rwanda of supporting the M23, while UN experts estimate that Kigali has deployed at least 4,000 troops to support the rebels, a claim the Rwandan government categorically rejects.

Criticism in Burundi

Burundi has deployed troops in eastern Congo to support the FARDC and the Wazalendo militias. Over the past two years, several Burundian soldiers have been killed in North and South Kivu fighting the M23. A growing number of voices in Burundi are denouncing “useless sacrifices in a war that is not ours,” claiming that this military engagement serves regional political interests more than the defense of the national territory.

President Évariste Ndayishimiye, however, acknowledges this involvement :

“It is normal for Burundian soldiers to die in the DRC,” he declared, urging civilians “not to interfere in the affairs of the security forces, for fear of finding ourselves with a country without defenders.”

Official silence and regional concerns

No reaction had been recorded from the Burundian and Congolese governments at the time of publication of this article.

Several analysts fear that in the absence of a political solution, the Great Lakes region could descend into a new sectarian conflagration, with Minembwe becoming a symbol of the persistent tensions between Kinshasa, Kigali, and Gitega.