The Minister of International Affairs and Worldwide Cooperation, Olivier Nduhungirehe, has dismissed DR Congo's 'Genocost' narrative as a “political assemble with no foundation in worldwide legislation,” arguing that it’s designed to minimise the 1994 Genocide towards the Tutsi.
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Nduhungirehe stated this in an interview on The New Instances’ The Context podcast. He stated the idea seeks to deflect consideration from the persecution of Congolese Tutsi communities whereas advancing accusations towards Rwanda.
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The remarks come days after DR Congo held its annual “Genocost commemoration” in Kinshasa on August 2 underneath the patronage of President Félix Tshisekedi.
The time period, launched by the Congolese authorities in 2022, combines the phrases “genocide” and “value” to explain what Kinshasa says is the human and financial toll of practically three a long time of battle and the exploitation of the nation’s pure assets. Congolese authorities and officers have more and more tied the narrative to allegations towards Rwanda.
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‘Genocost has no authorized foundation’
Nduhungirehe argued that the idea has no authorized basis underneath the 1948 Conference on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
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“What they clarify is that it’s a genocide for financial good points,” he stated.
“While you say financial good points, already you might be destroying your argument as a result of the definition of genocide is a criminal offense that’s dedicated towards a selected group, a nationwide, racial, ethnic or non secular group, to be destroyed as such, not for financial good points.
“So, they got here up with this political assemble, which is aimed toward denying or minimising the Genocide towards the Tutsi, but additionally to accuse Rwanda and have a political or confrontational argument with Rwanda.”
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‘The selection of August 2 is telling’
Nduhungirehe additionally questioned the selection of August 2 for the annual commemoration, saying the date itself factors to occasions that inform a really completely different story.
“It refers to August 2, 1998. It was the beginning of the Second Warfare in Congo. And what occurred on August 2 in Kinshasa, Kisangani and lots of different components of western DRC? Tutsi had been lynched. Tutsi had been thrown off bridges. Tutsi had been killed underneath the decision of authorities,” he stated.
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The minister was referring to assaults that adopted the outbreak of the Second Congo Warfare, when Congolese Tutsi civilians and troopers had been focused in Kinshasa and different components of the nation.
On the time, Congo's International Minister Abdoulaye Yerodia Ndombasi publicly described Tutsi as “waste” and “microbes” that needs to be “eradicated methodically and resolutely”, remarks that later turned probably the most cited examples of anti-Tutsi hate speech within the nation.
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Within the days and weeks that adopted, Congolese Tutsi had been lynched, thrown off bridges, arbitrarily arrested and persecuted in a number of components of the nation.
Though Belgium later issued a world arrest warrant towards Yerodia over these statements, he was by no means prosecuted in DR Congo.
“When he handed away in February 2019, he benefited of funerals with all of the state honours by President Felix Tshisekedi,” the Minister stated.
Nduhungirehe stated the occasions of August 1998 marked the start of a sustained marketing campaign of persecution towards Congolese Tutsi communities.
Nduhungirehe argued that anti-Tutsi rhetoric has continued over time, citing statements by senior officers and public figures.
He referred to former FARDC spokesperson Maj Gen Sylvain Ekenge, who went publicly on the Congolese nationwide tv on December 27, 2025, urging Congolese males to not marry Tutsi girls.
“It’s as if he was studying the ‘Hutu Ten Commandments’,” Nduhungirehe stated, drawing a comparability with anti-Tutsi propaganda that was circulated in Rwanda earlier than the 1994 Genocide towards the Tutsi.
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He additionally accused some influential figures aligned with the Congolese authorities of constant to check with Tutsi as “microbes”, saying such rhetoric has contributed to the persecution of Congolese Tutsi.
“We now have rising hate speech in DR Congo. We now have all that within the media. So having the identical authorities that’s working with these people, a authorities that has promoted hate speech, coming again and enjoying the sufferer, inventing one thing that’s unknown in worldwide legislation, is absolutely pure cynicism,” he stated.
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Nduhungirehe additional famous that the “Genocost” narrative seeks to divert consideration from violence concentrating on Congolese Tutsi communities, significantly in jap DR Congo.
“It has at all times been the case for all genocides. Those that commit genocide at all times discover a option to play the sufferer and accuse others of genocide,” he stated.
“We all know that in jap DR Congo, the ethnic group that’s the sufferer of hate speech and persecutions is the Tutsi group, the Banyamulenge in South Kivu and different Congolese Tutsi communities.”
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He famous that stories over time have documented killings, lynchings, persecution and different abuses dedicated towards Congolese Tutsi due to their ethnic id.
“So popping out of nowhere with one thing referred to as Genocost is one other approach of genocide denial. It’s a well-known tactic used to maneuver away from accountability.”
Nduhungirehe stated the Congolese authorities is successfully projecting onto others what itself is accused of doing.
