As a coalition of national and foreign forces encircles the Banyamulenge community, cutting off food and medicine, survivors and watchdogs warn of a deliberate campaign of extermination echoing the region’s darkest history.
MINEMBWE, Democratic Republic of Congo — November 30, 2025
In the cloud-forested highlands of South Kivu, a silent siege is underway. For over 172,000 civilians, predominantly from the ethnic Tutsi Banyamulenge community, the world has shrunk to a prison of jagged hills and blockaded valleys. Their access to food, medicine, and escape has been systematically severed, creating a man-made famine that human rights advocates and community leaders are calling a deliberate campaign of ethnic extermination.
The crisis centers on the Minembwe region, where a military coalition of Congolese armed forces (FARDC), over 10,000 Burundian troops, and various pro-government militias—including the FDLR, a Rwandan Hutu rebel group with a genocidal ideology—have enforced a tight blockade since early 2025. What the governments frame as a counter-insurgency operation against M23 and allied rebels has morphed into a collective punishment of a civilian population, raising alarm that the world is witnessing the early stages of a genocide.
“This is not a war against rebels; it’s a siege against our people,” said Moïse Nyarugabo, a prominent Banyamulenge advocate and lawyer, in a recent public discussion. “The genocide unfinished in Gatumba is being completed here,” he added, referencing the 2004 massacre of over 160 Banyamulenge refugees in Burundi.
A Strategy of Starvation and Strikes
Eyewitness accounts and field reports depict a strategy designed to inflict maximum suffering. In October, Banyamulenge traders were turned back at gunpoint from the Bijombo market, their last major lifeline for supplies. By November, peaceful protests in Minembwe saw residents holding banners pleading, “End the Blockade — We Are Congolese.”
The response, witnesses say, has been brutal. Unmanned aerial vehicles, attributed to the coalition forces, have struck displacement camps near Mikenge, killing civilians and destroying makeshift shelters. The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) describes aid delivery as “impossible,” with children succumbing to severe acute malnutrition and preventable diseases running rampant.
“No entry, no exit,” one resident posted on social media platform X. “Hunger is our new enemy.” Accompanying videos show families fleeing into forests littered with landmines, forced to forage for survival.
Roots of Persecution: ‘Foreigners’ in Their Own Land
The current blockade is the latest horrific chapter in a long history of persecution for the Banyamulenge. Despite centuries of residence in the region, they have been systematically branded as “foreigners,” a toxic narrative rooted in colonial-era “Hamitic” theories that painted them as invaders.
This othering has repeatedly exploded into violence. In the 1990s, Congolese lawmakers voted for their mass expulsion, triggering waves of massacres. Since 2017, violence has intensified, with Mai-Mai militias looting their culturally vital cattle herds and razing their villages.
Genocide Watch has labeled the situation a “genocide emergency,” and the UN has documented “alarming hate speech” inciting ethnic cleansing. In response, some Banyamulenge have formed self-defense groups like Twirwaneho, which has allied with the M23 rebel movement—a fact Kinshasa uses to justify its crackdown and to taint the entire community as proxies of Rwanda.
Key Actors in the Minembwe Crisis
| Role | Key Allegations |
|---|---|
| FARDC (DRC Army) | Lead Congolese forces collaborating with militias; accused of conducting drone strikes on civilian camps. |
| FDNB (Burundian Army) | Over 10,000 troops deployed under a bilateral agreement; primary enforcers of the blockade. |
| Wazalendo/Mai-Mai | Pro-government militias engaged in cattle looting, village burnings, and propagating anti-Tutsi rhetoric. |
| FDLR | Rwandan Hutu rebel group, accused of genocide ideology; participating in joint operations against Tutsis. |
| Twirwaneho/M23 | Banyamulenge self-defense and rebel groups; labeled as “negative forces” and used to justify the siege. |
International Apathy and a Regional Powder Keg
The crisis in Minembwe is not an isolated event but a flashpoint in a regional conflagration. Eastern Congo’s conflicts, fueled by vast mineral wealth and ethnic rivalry, have displaced millions and killed an estimated six million people since 1996. M23’s recent advances have prompted Kinshasa to forge security alliances with Burundi and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), but these partnerships have often involved forces with deep-seated anti-Tutsi animus.
Despite pleas for help, international action has been lethargic. A coalition of lawyers filed a case at the East African Court of Justice in April, accusing Kinshasa of “extrajudicial killings and ethnic cleansing.” The Banyamulenge coalition GAKONDO alerted U.S. officials in October, detailing the “planned extermination.” Online, the hashtag #StopTheGenocideInCongo gains traction, but has yet to spur decisive diplomatic intervention.
As the cold season sets in across the highlands, survivors huddle in caves, rationing their last stores of food. “We are dying slowly,” one woman told Reuters via a smuggled audio message, her voice a whisper of despair.
For the Banyamulenge, the word “Twirwaneho” has become a mantra of survival. It means “we resist.” But as Moïse Nyarugabo lamented, “Resistance shouldn’t be our only choice.” Without urgent and robust international pressure—including targeted sanctions, the establishment of humanitarian corridors, and concrete accountability—the misty highlands of Minembwe risk becoming another forgotten graveyard in a region that knows too many.
