Who were those civilians massacred in Goma the DRC by Paul Kagame of Rwanda?

It is now clear that at total number of 5,447 people were brutally massacred in Goma, the Democratic Republic of Congo by M23 backed by Rwanda: No Peace without Justice for the victims

We are trying to share with you more details about what happened in Goma and why it happened and what could have been done in order to avoid it. This narrative is based on our daily work with Internally Displaced Persons in different camps in Goma and through one to one interactions with them at our offices in Goma. Once you build trust with refugees then they can share with the necessary information about them, and this trust can be achieved after a long time and as long as you are not perceived as connected to Rwanda.

The Massacre of all these people was expected, and for the last two years we shouted for these camps to be removed around Goma but in vain. The characteristics of these camps is that more than 90% of IDPs were Rwandaphone people (means those who speak Kinyarwanda as language) and as you can see on the map, M23 managed to control generally areas that were occupied by Rwandaphones in North Kivu. Most of those who were in camps did not own lands and lived on help from the communities where they stayed, this justified why they did not go back to their villages and why many even up to now do not want to back. And in most cases they were refugees who did not own land in different villages.

This time actors of the Civil Society, the United Nations and Humanitarian Organizations based in Goma have published the same exact number of people massacred my M23 when they captured Goma. Now we clearly know that 5,447 people were massacred by M23 in four days in Goma, 70% of these are civilians and among them 60% of these civilians are Internally Displaced Persons and Rwandan refugees in North Kivu, and again most of these Civilians are Hutus.

What the United Nations have not indicated is that the victims are Hutus and generally refugees, talking only about civilians may mislead the attention and give a partial information to the audience.  We encourage the United Nations to be clear on the identity of the victims also because this information is available to all those in Goma, there is no need to hide.

The President of Rwanda Paul Kagame continues his genocide against Hutu Refugees in Eastern DRCongo in the total indifference of the International Community.

Two days before the attack of Goma, Tutsi who were in Bulengo and Lushagala Internally Displaced Camps disappeared and moved towards AKOGENOKI Camp which was mainly for Tutsi and which was not attacked. During the war IDPs then moved towards Goma Center but refugees were so much vulnerable to get where to hide, many stayed on different roadsides where executioners met them and killed them while other where killed from IDP camps where they stayed.

We all knew that generally 75% of the Internally Displaced Persons were Hutu refugees in North Kivu, we all know this and only us said about it, but the international community claimed they were Congolese, the intention for this was to deny them protection. Recognizing that they were refugees then a debate could have merged of why are they staying near the border in Goma, and they should have been located far from the border where they should have been safer, and at the same time Rwanda could not have been able to claim about FDLR.

We are also not so sure that we did enough in order to ensure that could not happen but what is certain is that we did all what we were able to do, and even at our own risks especially that we were all the time exposed to the brutality of security services.

The United Nations such as World Food Programme (WFP), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the United Nations Mission for the Stability of the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) knew very well that people in IDP Camps were Rwandan Hutu Refugees but because these institutions were in the logic to encourage these refugees to go back so they left in these camps.

However AKOJENOKI IDP Camp where lived Tutsis was not attacked because M23 came quickly and protected this camp, and later on they were removed some taken to Rwanda others taken back to their villages.

 There is nothing that can justify these massive killings of civilians and both DRC and Government should be held accountable. There is no peace if justice is not done yet.