DRC Justice Minister Constant Mutamba, addresses inmates in Munzenze prison, in Goma.
Rwanda has yet again accused the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) of “extreme provocation” after the country’s Justice Minister was heard inciting inmates against Rwanda, warning that those who will be found guilty of collaborating with “the enemy” will be effectively dealt with.
Constant Mutamba, the DRC Justice Minister, in a video published on social media, is seen addressing detainees in the overcrowded Munzenze Prison, in Goma, warning inmates against collaborating with ‘the enemy’ Rwanda and President Paul Kagame, at the same time mobilising those willing to fight against Rwandans to reclaim their land.
“All the people who have been manipulated by Rwanda and Kagame, we will get you. We will not allow our country to be dominated by Rwandans. Do we understand each other? We will get all of you, along with Kagame,” the Congolese official is heard in the video, warning the inmates that among them there are some individuals who are accused of collaborating with Rwanda.
Mutamba, who is speaking through a mask, to deter the repugnant smell in the prison, is heard urging on inmates to denounce those among them accused of being agents of Rwanda. Over the past two years or so, the government of DRC has arrested hundreds of people, it suspects of collaborating with the M23 rebels, who are fighting for the rights of Kinyarwanda speaking populations in the Eastern part of the country, charging them with treason.
Human rights groups accuse the government of Felix Antoine Tshisekedi of persecuting and discriminatively arresting people on grounds of ethnicity, particularly Congolese Tutsi and Rwandans who lived and worked in DRC.
It is not yet clear why the Justice Minister was mobilising inmates, with some speculating that the government could be recruiting prisoners to fight alongside government forces and pro-government militias such as FDLR and Wazalendo. Mutumba tells the inmates that Congo’s number one enemy is Rwanda and they will ‘facilitate’ efforts to deal with the enemy.
Yolande Makolo, Spokesperson of the Government of Rwanda, described the Justice Minister’s diatribe as extreme provocation that threatens peace in the region.
“Extreme provocation by the DRC justice minister at a prison in Goma, a few kilometers from the border with Rwanda. Should we now expect criminals & prisoners in the deadly mix of FDLR, Wazalendo, European mercenaries and SAMIM fighting for FARDC?” Makolo said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
In the video, Mutamba tells the prisoners that they should help identify traitors so that they can be dealt with, in yet another act by a Congolese official inciting people against Rwanda and Rwandans.
Rwanda accuses DRC of supporting the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a genocidal militia composed of remnants of the Interahamwe and former government forces responsible for the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, whose members are fighting alongside Congolese government forces FARDC in the fight against M23, which says is fighting for the rights of Rwandophone communities in Eastern DRC, which have been subjected to decades of ethnic violence and war.
