Congolese refugees petition embassies over DR Congo insecurity

On January 23, Rwanda’s nearly 72,000 Congolese refugees petitioned several embassies in Kigali to end the Tutsi massacres and persecution in eastern DR Congo.

They want to return home peacefully. After 25 years in camps, some refugees fear losing their citizenship.
French, Belgian, British, and Ugandan embassies received petitions by Monday afternoon.

They petitioned the UN for action over a month after nonviolent rallies against ethnic violence in North and South Kivu.

Last week, Congolese refugees in Kenya petitioned the US, French, EU, and African Union embassies in Nairobi.

John Nsengiyera, a refugee in the Kigeme camp in Nyamage District, Southern Province, says the situation in eastern DR Congo has worsened.

While our brothers and sisters in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are being killed, more refugees are fleeing to Rwanda. On Monday, Nsengiyera said the Tutsi are persecuted for their ethnicity.

Nsengiyera urged the international community to act on Congolese Tutsi’s citizenship, Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese’s stigmatization, and Congolese refugees’ repatriation.

The 1994 Rwandan Genocide survivors founded the FDLR genocidal militia, which the petition calls for to be disbanded.