These tactics are the root cause of the crisis destroying the Eastern DRC and, at the same time, the diversionary element that conceals other factors: daily massacres of civilians by over a hundred terror militias, as well as natural resource exploitation and state budget predation by Congolese officials.
Be that as it may, Felix Tshisekedi has also played the tribalistic and xenophobic card resulting in tribal hatred and blatant violence against Tutsi Congolese civilians who are labeled as the “enemy of within”. Add to that, The hate messages directed against them are currently eerily similar to the propaganda of the Radio-television Mille Collines (RTLM) before and during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Hate messages have also been propagated by Congolese civil society groups. Safari Biamungu, the chair of Lucha, recently declared: “Let us pass, so that we may continue the Interahamwe’s mission in Rwanda, long live Dr. Mukwege!” This is frightening because the Interahamwe militias have not abandoned their intention of returning to Rwanda to complete what they had begun in 1994, which is the genocide against the Tutsi.
In a nutshell, the recent events in DR Congo have made it clear that, when a government is ruled by a well-organized core of extremists skilled in manipulation and genocide incitement against its civilians, there is little hope for peace.