For several years, the Kinshasa regime has drummed loud that people speaking kiswahili and kinyarwanda languages are aliens in Democratic Republic of Congo.
The propaganda has intensified it’s reach made possible by social media.
“For this regime, any Congolese person who speaks Kinyarwanda and Swahili is automatically presented as a Rwandan, even though the history of our country clearly demonstrates the existence of Congolese communities that speak these languages, particularly Congolese Tutsis,” AFC/M23 leadership says.
The rebels alliance argues that Kinshasa has perpetuated, among the national and international community, the false narrative that Congolese people fighting within the AFC/M23 to survive a genocide planned by the Kinshasa regime are foreigners coming from Rwanda.
“This discourse, based on conflating language, identity, and nationality, contributes to fueling and facilitating the genocidal ideology of the Kinshasa regime,” the rebels said.
“This is why Kinshasa’s ideology of stigmatization and division within Congolese society is even beginning to deceive the international community and the United Nations.
According to the rebels alliance, “All these reports and accusations regarding our neighboring countries, as well as the allegations of external support, encourage the Kinshasa regime’s genocidal idea of exterminating Swahili-speaking communities and Congolese Tutsi communities.”
The regime, “presents Congolese people who speak Kinyarwanda and are in the Congolese Revolutionary Army (ARC) as foreigners or invaders constitutes a form of discriminatory and exclusionary ideology that can only worsen the fractures that the Kinshasa regime has installed in our country.”
According to the rebels the areas under their adminisration, speaking Kinyarwanda or another language does not constitute a reason for division.
“Congolese populations from different communities and linguistic origins live together and coexist in the same space. The language a Congolese person speaks should never be enough to strip them of their Congolese identity or their rights.”
