Banyamulenge women at a funeral in South Kivu, eastern DRC on 7 October 2020.
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Rwanda shapes conflict in the region by using the Congolese Tutsi to centre its claims of a continued threat of genocide.
DRC’s outgoing president Joseph Kabila (left) with his successor Felix Tshisekedi in January 2019.
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Laurent Kabila and his son Joseph were the Democratic Republic of Congo’s third and fourth presidents.
A soldier guards a camp in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in January 2023.
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Central to the DRC’s politics is a broken relationship between the seat of government in Kinshasa and underrepresented groups in the eastern region.
Soldiers from South Sudan prepare to be deployed to help restore peace in the DRC.
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The causes of violence in the DRC are complex. Narrowing them down to the single lens of ethnicity can be misleading.
Burundian military personnel arrive at Goma airport in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on 5 March, 2023.
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Insecurity, especially in the DRC’s South Kivu, is considered a serious threat by Burundi’s army.
Banyamulenge community members at the funeral of one of their own in eastern DRC.
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The Banyamulenge have been viewed as strangers in their own country – the violence targeting them revolves around this misconception.
Men hold up protest signs in front of the coffins of DRC refugees killed in August 2004 in Gatumba, Burundi.
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Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo is used to win a place in government, not to overthrow it. And it keeps working.
A convoy of Pakistani peacekeepers of the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC patrol around Minembwe, South Kivu province, October 7, 2020.
Photo by Alexis Huguet/AFP via Getty Images
While history is often deployed as a weapon in eastern DRC, it also shows us stories of friendship and collaboration.