Hundreds of people in Goma, east of the Congo, staged a demonstration on Friday in memory of the victims of the Congolese genocide, known as GENOCOST.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) paid tribute to the million victims of the Congolese genocide, known as GENOCOST, attributed to atrocities linked to armed conflicts for economic gain.
On the 2nd of August of every year, the Congolese people across the world take part in the Memorial Day for the Congolese Genocide, GENOCOST. This yearly event is a simple gesture to pay respect to the lives of all those who have lost their lives in the Congo’s long history of conflicts.
The demonstrators took advantage of this day to express their protest to the “silence” and “complicity” of the international community regarding the massacre perpetrated in DRC.
Musole Bertin, a protester, told Iran press: “We are in the streets to denounce the Rwandan aggression with the blessing of the entire international community. We denounce their silence in the face of what is happening in the east of the country because it is complicity.
“We remind the international community that the Congolese youth are standing up to their complicity, and we are not going to accept this situation. We warn them: they must take their responsibilities in hand so that the massacres in the east can end,” he stressed.
The people singled out several Western countries, including the United States, France, and Belgium, accusing them of being behind the support of Rwanda, which is involved in the aggression against DRC.
For more than 30 years, the east of DRC has been plagued by armed violence. At the end of November 2021, the March 23 Movement (M23) rebellion took up arms again in the east of the country, managing to take a large part of the province. Kinshasa along with several reports issued by United Nations experts accuse Rwanda of supporting this rebellion, which Kigali firmly denies.
“The United States, the international community, European Union, they all have responsibility. Last time, they signed an agreement with Rwanda concerning strategic minerals, yet Rwanda has no deposits in its country. All these minerals are stolen in the DRC. The United States is complicit in what is happening in DRC. We need Rutshuru, Lubero, Nyiragongo to be freed. We do not want to continue burying our compatriots. We want to live peacefully in our respective villages,” said Théodore Bisimwa, another protester to Iran press.
The Congolese authorities also took advantage of this opportunity to bury, on Friday, August 2, seven other people in the Genocost cemetery, located in the Kibati group, in Nyiragongo territory. These people were killed between July 15 and 16, following the bombs dropped by the M23 on Bweremana village, in the south of the Masisi territory. The Congolese authorities have once again raised their voices to make the whole world aware that a genocide is taking place in Congo, before the eyes of the international community.
“The genocide in Congo, Genocost that we commemorate today, is not only a dark chapter in our history, but it is a brutal call to what humanity is capable of in the shadow of ignorance, hatred and total indifference of the various international communities. We therefore have a duty to remind the whole world of what happened here so that such horrors never happen again,” Kizito Pakabomba, Congolese Minister of Mines and representative of the Congolese Head of State, told Iran press.
As the Democratic Republic of Congo pays tribute to its victims, the war continues to escalate in the east of the country, causing even more loss of life. Congolese voices, united in their grief and determination, call for awareness and immediate actions by the international community to end this silent genocide.
