Under the shadow of violence: are the Banyamulenge experiencing a slow genocide?

Colonialism, racial categorization, abolishment of local chiefdoms, and the reified post-colonial autochthony have left the Banyamulenge identified as “immigrants, foreigners, and invaders”. The Banyamulenge are specifically targeted by the Congolese state, non-state armed actors, and militias. Killings and massacres are often preceded by demonizing and dehumanizing campaigns. For five decades, attacks have used a similar modus operandi: men, boys, and unarmed military soldiers have constituted the primary target to be killed first and then women and girls afterward. Rape is used to destroy female bodies as survivors were threatened to be allotted for marriage among male perpetrators. They have been subjected to forced displacement and attacks have narrowed their territorial boundaries. The remaining Banyamulenge in South Kivu are currently besieged and starved. Their villages and their economy–source of livelihood were destroyed. Violence has largely targeted their culture and social identity while trying to erase or/and hide evidence. This slow-elimination experience is frozen within the complex violent setting in Eastern DRC that followed the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. The violent setting justifies targeted attacks and backs denialist arguments of the Banyamulenge’s vulnerability. This article tries to disentangle genocidal killings embedded in the sense of eliminating “invaders” from widespread violence.