kirill_makarov/Shutterstock
Maps can shape how we see conflict.
Burundian military officers arrive in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to tackle the rise of militias in the region.
Alexis Huguet/AFP via Getty Images
The RED-Tabara armed group operates out of the DRC’s volatile eastern region, which shares a porous 243km border with Burundi.
Banyamulenge women at a funeral in South Kivu, eastern DRC on 7 October 2020.
Alexis Huguet/AFP via Getty Images
Rwanda shapes conflict in the region by using the Congolese Tutsi to centre its claims of a continued threat of genocide.
US ambassador to the UN Madeleine Albright (L), UN secretary general Boutros Boutros-Ghali (R) after a meeting with US President Clinton in 1994 to discuss the situation in Rwanda.
Pamela Price/AFP via Getty Images
Many believe that the international community could have acted earlier, to prevent the genocide before it started.
Commemorating the victims of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide at a memorial in Kigali.
Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP via Getty Images
Rwanda is touted as one of the leading nations when it comes to strides toward gender equality. But the role of female ‘rescuers’ in the 1994 genocide is being downplayed.
A woman carrying a child looks at a wall in Kigali with names of the victims of the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP via Getty Images
The 1994 Rwanda genocide has left lasting scars. Children born of sexual violence and mothers have shown immense strength in overcoming their histories of violence.
Burundi president Evariste Ndayishimiye votes in 2020.
Evrard Ngendakumana/Xinhua via Getty Images
Any state policy looking to increase women’s representation must take into account formal and informal political practices.
Paul Kagame at a commemoration of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda in April 2023.
Mariam Kone/AFP via Getty Images
The circumstances, challenges and history of Rwanda are intertwined with Paul Kagame’s own life story.
Simon Wohlfahrt/AFP via Getty Images
Kabuga’s release raises questions about the international community’s commitment to delivering justice for genocide victims.
Kagame prefers partnership with successful European football clubs to market Rwanda.
Luke Dray/FIFA via Getty Images
With Africa’s solid support and his pro-west military and policy adventures, Kagame is able to take on critics.
Paul Rusesabagina receives the Medal of Freedom from US President George W Bush in 2005.
Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Rusesabagina’s release portrays Rwanda’s president as a pragmatist – one willing to negotiate once a security threat is neutralised.
Paul Rusesabagina at the Supreme Court in Kigali, Rwanda, in February 2021.
Simon Wohlfahrt/AFP via Getty Images
Rwanda has rebuffed international pressure to release Paul Rusesabagina, a man made famous by Hollywood.
Men hold up protest signs in front of the coffins of DRC refugees killed in August 2004 in Gatumba, Burundi.
Simon Maina/AFP via Getty Images
Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo is used to win a place in government, not to overthrow it. And it keeps working.
DRC President Félix Tshisekedi (left) and Rwanda President Paul Kagame in Kigali in 2021.
Habimana Thierry/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Rwanda believes DRC continues to provide refuge for those behind the 1994 genocide.
A billboard highlights Rwanda’s 100-day commemoration of the 1994 genocide.
Thierry Falise/LightRocket via Getty Images
In 2003, Rwanda adopted a policy of ethnic non-recognition. However, for 100 days in a year, it centres ethnicity in the country’s psyche.
Sorting newly picked coffee beans.
Thierry BrŽsillon-GODONG/GettyImages
The peasantry still provides almost all the resources of the party-state, yet most of the agrarian policy decisions are taken without consultation.
A soldier from the armed forces of the DRC on foot patrol in the village of Manzalaho near Beni.
Alexis Huguet / AFP via Getty Images
Violence in the DRC can be brought to an end if the geographical scope of the conflict is broadened to include all neighbouring countries.
Rwanda’s presidential couple at the 2021 genocide commemoration.
SIMON WOHLFAHRT/AFP via Getty Images
A survey of the commemorations since 2014 reveals the politicking behind the writing of history and Rwanda’s place in the world.
Paul Rusesabagina, chairman of the Rwandan Movement for Democratic Change political party.
In a political environment as polarised as Rwanda’s, there is no room for moderates and no space for critical voices.
Picture dated 12 June 1994 showing an Interahamwe Hutu militiaman holding a machete in Gitarama, center Rwanda.
Alexander Joe/AFP
Between 1992 and 1994, the former regime is said to have imported 581 tonnes of machetes into Rwanda. This figure appears to establish that the genocide was planned. But is this number accurate?