Hutus, Tutsis, and a History of Violence
A photograph of M23 rebels operation in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (via AFP).
By Jim Wells ‘26
On January 27, 2025, rebel forces captured the city of Goma, the largest and most densely populated urban area within the province of Kivu in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The perpetrators of this offensive, known as the March 23 Movement, or M23, did not let this victory hinder the pace of their incursion into Congolese territory. Continuing their offensive southward, M23 rebels captured the city of Bukavu, a city with a population of approximately 1.3 million inhabitants, just three weeks later, marking the worst escalation of the conflict since 2012. These events prompted a United Nations warning, which cited concerns about the displacement of civilians, an inability to distribute lifesaving medical aid, and the possibility of a broader regional war. These recent developments, however, are nothing more than a continuation of an ethnic conflict—one that has plagued the region throughout its history.
Regional Background Information
Nestled snugly on both sides of the equator, the Central African region includes a coalition of nine countries, with most of the population primarily concentrated near runoffs from the Congo River system. Consisting of Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Cameroon, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Central African Republic, and Sāo Tomé and Príncipe, the Central African region is rich with natural resources, including but not limited to diamonds, cobalt, and copper. The region also boasts over half of the continent’s potential hydroelectric power in conjunction with some of the largest forest reserves in Africa.
Ethnically, the region is home to over 50 classifications of people, most of whom trace their ancestry to a myriad of ancient tribal groups throughout the sub-Saharan part of the continent. Two of these ethnic groups are the Hutu and Tutsi. A Bantu-speaking people, native to the countries Rwanda and Burundi, the Hutus operated as an agrarian, clan-based society throughout the region until approximately the 15 century. Following this period, the region saw an influx of Tutsi, an ethnic group of probable Nilotic origin.
Despite encompassing a relatively small percentage of the population, the Tutsi dominated the aristocracy of the region, forcing the Hutu into lord-vassal relationships. Following centuries of oppression, the Hutu people initiated a 1959 uprising in an effort to liberate themselves from the unjust rule of their Tutsi overseers. This transition from Tutsi to Hutu rule was not a peaceful one, and it killed some 20,000 Tutsis between 1959 and 1961 and displaced another 150,000 from their homes.
Over the following decades, violence pervaded the region, resulting in the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) invasion of Uganda in 1990. The following year, a ceasefire was negotiated between RPF rebels and Rwandan President, Juvénal Habyarimana. One of the provisions of this ceasefire included a transition plan that ensured that Tutsis within the RPF would be included in the broad-based transition government. Hutu extremists strongly opposed this action, subsequently leading to the widespread dissemination of anti-Tutsi propaganda throughout the region.
Bloodstains on Central Africa
On April 6, 1994, a diplomatic jet engine carrying Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira, then president of Burundi, was shot down over the Rwandan capital of Kigali. Neither man survived, and the perpetrator remained a mystery, causing chaos to erupt in Rwanda. Hutu extremists capitalized on the confusion, killing the country’s prime minister the following day in conjunction with the 10 Belgian soldiers guarding her. This approach was part of a broader strategy being carried out by Hutu extremists that sought to eliminate Tutsi and moderate Hutu politicians from the government with the ultimate aim of creating a power vacuum.
Throughout the following months, anarchy ensued. Hutu extremist militants, known as Interahamwe, translated to mean “those who attack together,” and Impuzamugambi, translated to mean “those who have the same goal,” played key roles in the violence. Radio propaganda also had a critical effect on the disorder. Prominent radio networks encouraged Hutu civilians to capitalize on the pandemonium by seeking retribution on their Tutsi neighbors, who were referred to as “cockroaches” that needed to be exterminated. Approximately 200,000 Hutus participated in the violence, although many were reluctant and only partook after they were threatened by extremist Hutu militants.
Methods of extermination of the Tutsi people in Rwanda took the most violent forms imaginable. Machetes, which were commonplace due to their use as an agricultural tool, were utilized to dismember and decapitate Tutsi civilians. Sexual violence was also employed, with upwards of 250,000 Tutsi women falling victim to sexual assault at the hands of Hutu government soldiers and allied militant extremists. Adding to the moral abhorrence of these crimes, evidence that these attacks were primarily and intentionally carried out by men who were afflicted with HIV/AIDS have led many to speculate about the use of sexually transmitted diseases as a weapon of war. A 2001 study corroborated this fear, finding that 70% of Tutsi rape victims who had survived these events were HIV-positive. These events came to be known as the Rwandan Genocide.
Finally, on July 19, 1994, a ceasefire was brokered after the Tutsi-led RPF overthrew the Hutu government and a transnational unity government was established. The composition of the government saw Pasteur Bizimungu, a Hutu, become president, and RPF leader Paul Kagame, a Tutsi, occupy the vice presidency. The Rwandan Genocide is often recounted as lasting a mere 100 days. During this short time, roughly 800,000 people, most of them Tutsi, were slaughtered. Another two million fled to neighboring Zaire, now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Cyclical Violence
While such atrocities would lead one to hope for a unilateral condemnation of further violence by all parties, the events following the Rwandan Genocide proved to yield anything but such denunciation for the region. While many of the two million refugees that had fled to eastern Zaire were civilians, there was also a large faction of Hutu extremists living within the enclaves. Seeking vengeance for the violence of the Rwandan Genocide, Rwandan troops, under the leadership of Paul Kagame, invaded eastern Zaire in 1996. This offensive, which came to be known as The First Congo War, was conducted on the pretense that Hutu extremists who had fled to the region in order to avoid prosecution for their crimes still posed a threat to the Tutsi population.
Concerned by the brutal dictatorship of Mobutu Sese Seko, the leader of Zaire at the time, the neighboring countries of Uganda, Angola, and Burundi joined the Tutsi-led Rwandan government in their offensive. The assault was carried out with the support of Congolese opposition leader Laurent Kabila, and after 9 months of fighting, on May 16, 1997, the Seko regime fell. Kabila was installed as the President and the country was renamed to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Strife broke out again in 1998 between the newly formed Congolese administration and the government of Rwanda. To further legitimize his rule amongst the Congolese people, President Laurent Kabila began espousing rhetoric that diminished the role of Rwanda in The First Congo War. Additionally, Kabila began removing ethnic Tutsis from his government while simultaneously taking measures to minimize the Rwandan military presence in the eastern DRC. As more evidence came to light and it became clear that the Rwandan military was guilty of targeting Hutu populations during The First Congo War, Kabila switched his allegiances by ordering all foreign troops out of the Congo and allowing Hutu militias to mobilize on the eastern border.
In response, Congolese Tutsi militant groups launched an offensive backed by the militaries of Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda. Fighting against them were various Hutu paramilitary groups supported by the Kabila regime, who were supported by the governments of Angola, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Sudan, Chad, and Libya. Thus, the stage was set for a much bloodier conflict that drew in military entities from across the African continent. The following years consisted of a brutal proxy war that led to the deaths of roughly 5.4 million people, constituting one of the most devastating wars on the African continent in recent history. This conflict became known as The Second Congo War, though others often refer to it as “The Great War of Africa.”
In 2001, amidst the chaos of war, Laurent Kabila was assassinated during a coup d’état. The perpetrators were imprisoned, and his son, Joseph, rose to power. Negotiations followed, and by August 2002, the war was formally brought to a close—marking an end to one of the most barbarous chapters in the African continent’s history.
M23
Centralized in the eastern province of Kivu, M23’s name derives from a peace agreement signed on March 23, 2009, between its predecessor, the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) militia, and the DRC government. M23, a predominantly ethnic Tutsi group, was initially founded as an extremist rebel group in 2012 over disagreements concerning the agreement but was militarily overwhelmed by the Congolese army, launching them into irrelevance by October 2013.
Throughout the rest of the decade, the group would periodically appear to voice their discontent with what they perceived to be the Congolese government’s lackluster implementation of the terms of the peace agreement. In late 2021, however, M23 began to make periodic attacks on Congolese military outposts, raiding the enclaves for munitions and supplies. By December 2022, the group's attacks had become more frequent, and the number of casualties associated with the attacks were beginning to rise. M23’s military power continued to increase throughout the early parts of the decade, and in April 2024, the group seized the Rubaya mining region, one of the largest producers of coltan, a metallic ore used in the production of cellphones and laptops, in the world.
Since the beginning of the new year, M23 has made significant gains, capturing the towns of Sake, Minova, and Masisi en route to Goma, a city with a population of roughly 2 million people. Goma serves as a regional hub for humanitarian, security, and diplomatic efforts, while also functioning as a site of refuge for more than 1 million civilians who have fled violence in other parts of the region. This situation continued to escalate when 14 foreign peacekeepers were killed in violent clashes with M23 outside of the city on January 25, 2025. This caused the Congolese government to sever its diplomatic ties with Rwanda due to the latter's support for M23.
Rwanda’s Involvement
Following M23’s capture of Goma on January 28, the Rwandan government denied supporting the militant group. The accusations of Rwandan support for the group, however, weren’t singularly levied by the Congolese government; US intelligence as well as reports by the European Union and the United Nations have both corroborated this claim. The term “military support” may not be the most accurate description of Rwanda’s involvement, however, as UN reports estimate anywhere from 4,000 to 7,000 Rwandan troops are actively involved in combat operations in the region.
The reason for Rwanda’s military involvement can be reduced to two causal variables: economic benefit and strategic defense. The eastern DRC is rich in a myriad of natural resources, which provide necessary materials for goods like batteries, circuit boards, and other electronic devices. As such, Rwanda stands to gain financially by having a foothold in the region through M23’s fraudulent extraction of minerals, which are subsequently exported to Rwanda at a discounted rate compared to the global price and thus benefit both entities.
Additionally, Rwanda has political and security interests in the DRC stemming from the region’s previous conflicts. Still present in the region are the ethnic Hutu Democratic Front for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), many of whom are alleged to have participated in the Rwandan genocide. As the Congolese military has provided military aid and financial support to groups like the FLDR in their fight against opposition groups like M23, tensions have been stoked between the Rwandan and Congolese governments. As for why M23 began to intensify its military efforts at the beginning of 2025, some experts see the move as a possible effort by Rwanda to expand its sphere of influence in the region and maximize its position in currently suspended Angolan-led peace talks between itself and the DRC, which collapsed in December 2024.
What Lies Ahead
In an interview with BBC on February 3, Rwandan President Paul Kagame was asked if Rwanda had any troops in the eastern DRC. “I don’t know,” he replied. Kagame continued: “But if you want to ask me ‘is there a problem in the Congo that concerns Rwanda, and that Rwanda will do anything to protect itself?’ I’d say, 100%.” Kagame then stated that he did not believe that any party involved in the conflict was interested in war.
Whether or not Kagame believes his own rhetoric is an unanswerable question. What can be analyzed, however, are the facts of the conflict. Two neighboring countries in Central Africa are using their own militaries as well as proxy militias to stoke ethnic and economic divides in the region. This fact, in conjunction with the history of Central Africa, renders a bloodier and more broadly encompassing stage of the conflict far from unimaginable.