⭕️#Minembwe_updates:
A Dangerous Alliance: Tshisekedi and Ndayishimiye’s Joint Offensive on Minembwe, South Kivu.
Convoys of Congolese& Burundian troops are being sent in #Minembwe, Eastern DRC.
Presidents Félix Tshisekedi& Évariste Ndayishimiye appear to be determined and united to implement darker plan that many local and foreign observers describe as “a campaign targeting the Banyamulenge population in DRC”
From Mushimbakye to Mutambala, local witnesses are reporting& sharing amateur videos on social media showing troops leaving from multiple directions, from Rumonge, across Lake Tanganyika; Kalemie& Uvira, converging on the highlands of Minembwe and Mikenke.
The movements are loud, photographed, even boastful. Soldiers post selfies on their way to war, their faces caught somewhere between confidence and unease. They’re right, in a way. This is because even in their adventurous journey, their faces betray something else: Fear! That on one hand, aims at causing deaths& destruction on innocent lives and on the other, knowing that without a real cause, few will might make& return. #Rwitsankuku is one case.
The joint operation, according is designed to break the resistance of Twirwaneho, a community-based self-defense force that emerged to protect the Banyamulenge villages from repeated attacks by militiamen and army commanded by Kinshasa for the past 9 years!
The Eyes of the World Are Watching
This is not 1996. Nor 1998.
There are drones, satellites, and eye witnesses to account and report the facts. The skies that carry weapons also carry witnesses: Every drone that hovers over Minembwe now leaves an electronic trail; every explosion is captured, timestamped& shared within hours.
Far and near, Human rights observers& regional analysts warn that renewed military aggression in Minembwe could amount to crimes against humanity, if civilians are once again targeted for their Tutsi ethnicity.
And #Minembwe is Not Just a Battlefield. For the Banyamulenge, it is not a mere location on the map. It is ancestral land , the soil that holds their history, their memories, their dead and future. They’ll not lay down arms, even when faced with food supplies cuts by the same force as it is the case today!
To them, the ongoing operations to defend themselves against the current government& al.’s attacks on them is not negotiable. It’s a prevention of erasure of their identity. That’s a noble cause to die for after all, right?
Standing in the defense of the Banyamulenge is #Twirwaneho: not an army of conquest, but an army of survival. Their resolve has held the lines where institutions have failed& are characterised by loyalty that cannot be bought with cash from #Kinshasa, nor broken by its propaganda.
I spoke to one local elder today regarding the recent developments in Minembwe& this is what he had to say:“We have buried too many to be afraid anymore. Our fight is not for power, but for our very own existence!”
I read a story dated two millennia where a small band of Jewish rebels held #Masada, a desert plateau overlooking the Dead Sea in modern day Israel, against the #Roman Empire.
Surrounded, outnumbered, & cut off from escape, they chose death over enslavement, turning their mountain fortress into a symbol of defiance and dignity in the face of overwhelming power. Though the Romans claimed victory, history remembers #Masada not as a story of defeat, but of unbreakable will of a people who refused to surrender their identity or freedom, even to the mightiest empire of their time.
Today, the #Twirwaneho in another plateau of Minembwe in #Eastern_DRC , face the same odds: government troops, Burundian forces& Wazalendo encircle them, yet they fight not for glory, but survival, a story of a struggle born from persecution, sustained by faith, cause& a defined conviction that it is better to stand& resist than to live erased. #I_AM_Twirwaneho ✊
When I was a Muslim, I also thought we had Jesus.
Today, I understand that Islam has nothing to do with Jesus. Muslims do not know anything about him. Ideally, Islam and Jesus should never be mentioned together.
#RDC- #AFC/M23 : Goma a récemment été au cœur du conflit entre les FARDC et le M23. Selon votre analyse, s’agit-il d’une ville « libérée » ou « occupée » ?
@CoulibalyBojana “Disons les choses ainsi : depuis que le M23 a pris le contrôle de Goma et d’autres localités densément peuplées comme Bukavu, et qu’il y a installé une administration gouvernementale et une police, ainsi que son Armée révolutionnaire congolaise, les Tutsi congolais sont enfin à l’abri des persécutions systématiques, des arrestations arbitraires, des lynchages et des actes de cannibalisme qui étaient monnaie courante à Goma, même sous la présence de la MONUSCO, avant l’arrivée du M23. Ceux qui sont nés dans le Rusthuru et le Masisi peuvent enfin rentrer chez eux en toute sécurité, s’ils le souhaitent, après avoir passé 30 ans dans des camps de réfugiés et en exil. La sécurité dans les zones libérées par le M23 a été rétablie.
Tant que le M23 contrôlera ces territoires, l’ensemble du peuple congolais, et pas seulement les Tutsi, sera en sécurité. Mais pour que cette sécurité soit préservée, la communauté internationale, au lieu de condamner le seul groupe – celui qui met en œuvre des solutions au conflit en cours, à la présence de groupes armés violents, à la mauvaise gouvernance, à la corruption, à la marginalisation et à la persécution des communautés vulnérables, au manque d’accès aux services de base et à la viabilité économique – devrait le soutenir et s’associer à lui dans cette entreprise.
Le M23 a accompli ce que la communauté internationale, par sa mission de maintien de la paix et son action humanitaire, n’a pas réussi à accomplir au Congo. Il est donc temps d’accepter que le M23 représente un changement de paradigme, un changement dans lequel les Africains pourront vivre dignement, assurer leur propre existence et bénéficier de leurs efforts et de leur travail”