We should work hard to close this Rwanda Refugees Military Recruitment Center in Goma RDC

WE ASK FELIX MUSANGANYA HEAD OF THE CNR GOMA TO IMMEDIATELY CLOSE THIS RWANDAN REFUGEE RECRUITMENT CENTER ON BEHALF OF RWANDAN PRESIDENT PAUL KAGAME AT CCLK, KYESHERO GOMA

President Paul Kagame recruits Fighters among Hutu refugees here in North Kivu especially in Masisi and Rutshuru who are trained into military activities and then he sends them to support the M23 in North Kivu, the Congolese National Commission for Refugees known as CNR, UNHCR and MONUSCO/DDDR are the Actors highly involved in these recruitments under the helpless eye of our Security services.

A Transit Center located in Avenue Policlique 3 Kyeshero Goma DRC, is used by UNHCR and the CNR to help Rwanda recruit Rwandan Hutu Refugees in the DRC. Once recruited, they are placed in this Center where they are baptized in the name of the Refugees who are willing to be repatriated in order to divert the vigilance of our Security services. Generally spies are sent on ground in order to identify those who should be mobilized to come to this center, and various tricks are used which affect refugees. After a few weeks these Hutus are then sent to Rwanda by the CNR/UNHCR, thus the men are quickly transported to Military Training centers in Ruhengeri, and then they are deployed to North Kivu to support the M23.

Several testimonies would indicate that a large part of the M23 Combatants are Hutus recruited in Masisi by the CNR/UNHCR, testimonies from Rwandan Refugees would also indicate that the M23 Commanders around Goma, and in several corners of Masisi are Hutus that the CNR/UNHCR/DDDR sent to Rwanda from this Center at CCLK.

This Rwandan refugee woman told us “my brother is there in Virunga National Parc, he is fighting alongside M23 rebels, we were here together then UNHCR took us to Rwanda, after some months I escaped and came back here, but my brother was taken to military training and was deployed in M23, they used him because he knew the place. He calls me sometimes and keeps on telling me that he wants to run away but he does not have the way out. He is the one to call me when he finds he is safe”.

Mutabazi a Rwandan refugee in Uganda also told us “I was mobilized by UNHCR to return back to Rwanda in 2021, but shortly we were taken to Military training for 7 months and later we were deployed to Rutshuru where we fought and helped M23 to gain the space together with my colleagues. Actually some among those commandants in Masisi are people we were with, me I decided to defect and now here in Uganda”.

It has already been a year since we asked the CNR/UNHCR to visit this place but without success, until now Felix Musanganya no longer even picks up our calls on the telephone even our Local Authorities have never visited this center which is managed in total discretion, and refugees inside are like in a prison because they cannot go outside. We ask the Security Services to conduct more investigations into the Activities of UNHCR/CNR/DDDR Goma as well as the Governor of the Province to IMMEDIATELY close this Paul Kagame recruitment center.

Do you know who the Officers of the National Commission are for Refugees who are in the CNR Goma?  Do you know the Officers who work in UNHCR Goma? Wait for our next publication and you will be shocked.

Done in Goma, this Friday, December 20, 2024