To: Mr. Filippo Grandi
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
Geneva, Switzerland
Date: May 22, 2025
Re: Distress of Rwandan refugees and Congolese Hutu populations Threatened with Enforced Repatriation to Rwanda.
Dear Mr. Grandi,
The Movement for the Republic and Democracy is writing to express its deep concern at the dramatic situation facing Rwandan refugees in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), particularly in the Goma and Bukavu regions, now under the control of Rwandan armed forces acting under cover of the M23 armed group.
This letter follows on from the one sent to His Excellency the UN Secretary-General on 14 February 2025, in which we warned of the serious threats hanging over Rwandan refugees, victims of an authoritarian regime in Kigali led by President Paul Kagame. Unfortunately, recent events confirm our deepest fears.
We are watching helplessly as refugees are forcibly returned to Rwanda, the country they fled because of persecution. These acts, which clearly contravene article 33 of the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, violate the fundamental principle of non-refoulement. What is even more worrying is that these refoulements are said to be facilitated by certain components of the UNHCR operating in Goma.
We were told that these refoulement operations affect not only Rwandan refugees of Hutu ethnicity, but also Congolese citizens of the same ethnic origin or sharing the Kinyarwanda language. These Congolese are robbed of their property by the M23 rebels, supported by the Rwanda Defense Forces (RDF), and are victims of serious abuses, including the destruction of their identity papers and the unfounded accusation of belonging to the FDLR. Can we honestly believe that the old men, women and children filmed in these videos are FDRL combatants?
We urge you to closely monitor the fate of the many male refugees – absent among those turned back – who are feared to have been arrested or even disappeared. The women and children transferred to Rwanda cannot alone represent the entire population concerned.
We believe that these atrocities are the direct consequence of the prolonged impunity enjoyed by certain key players in the Rwandan regime and the M23 for more than thirty years. Under Paul Kagame’s leadership, the RDF – sometimes described as a ‘killing machine’ – enjoy an impunity that makes the worst human rights violations possible.
We recall here the importance of the ‘Mapping Report’ published by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in October 2010, which lists serious human rights violations committed in the DRC that could be classified as crimes of genocide if they were duly examined by a competent court. Fifteen years after its publication, this documentation remains a dead letter.
More than ten million Congolese are thought to have lost their lives, millions of women have been raped, and atrocities continue on a daily basis in areas occupied by the M23/RDF. Among the main targets of this violence are Rwandan refugees and Congolese populations deemed undesirable in the east of the DRC.
In view of these facts, we urge:
1. That all necessary measures be taken to put an end to this violence.
2. That the UNHCR ensure the effective protection of the Rwandan refugees still present in the DRC, abandoned by the international community.
3. That the perpetrators of these crimes against humanity be identified, prosecuted and tried in order to break the cycle of impunity once and for all.
4. That the UNHCR investigate the fate of refugees forcibly returned to Rwanda, in particular men whose disappearance gives cause for concern.
Pending concrete and urgent action on your part, we thank you, Mr. High Commissioner, for the attention you will give to this appeal, which we are addressing to you in the name of human dignity and international law.
Yours sincerely,
Rev Christine Coleman
President of the MRD
Copy for information :
– H.E. Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations
– H.E. Donald J. Trump, President of the United States of America
– H.E. Emmanuel Macron, President of the French Republic
– Secretary General of the European Union
– Secretary-General of the African Union
– H.E. Félix Antoine Tshisekedi, President of the DRC
– H.E. Evariste Ndayishimiye, President of Burundi
– H.E. Samia Suluhu Hassan, President of Tanzania
– Lewis Mudge, Director of Human Rights Watch
– Agnes Callamard, Director of Amnesty International
Leave a Reply