Hundreds of defections from FARDC ranks have been witnessed in a period of only one year due to tensions and stigmatization of Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese officers.
The lucky ones have managed to escape, while the less fortunate have already been picked up and killed. Defectors narrate various horrifying experiences including demeaning and degrading acts, stigma, insults, torture, harassment by colleagues and superiors, not receiving their salaries, day and night surveillance of their movements, and many more.
The defectors include high-ranking officers, senior, junior, and non-commissioned officers of the national army, FARDC. The defectors tell horrendous tales of persistent psychological torture at their posts of work, where even their juniors have stopped taking their military orders or even saluting them and disregarding the fact that they are their superiors.
The defectors also narrate how all Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese soldiers in service face constant harassment from their superiors who have since stopped assigning them any duties and treat them with demeaning contempt. The defectors speak of being constantly addressed as “M23” or “Rwandese infiltrators” by fellow soldiers and some are even threatened with death. This has made life in FARDC military camps quite challenging and a torturous affair for Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese.
The defectors have revealed that safety for Kinyarwanda-speaking soldiers is not guaranteed as any of them can be picked up any time and whisked away for interrogation from where many of them don’t return. Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese soldiers have been placed under movement restriction and are also under 24-hour surveillance.
The few who have been lucky enough to escape so far are only those who live in the periphery of Kinshasa or far away from the capital. Apparently, the defections have put the few remaining Kinyarwanda-speaking soldiers still in FARDC at heightened risk, and without doubt, the intensity of the targeted killings, torture, stigmatization, and harassment are only going to intensify.