Barely days into the new year, the Tshisekedi propaganda machine has returned to its tired playbook.
When crimes happen in eastern DRC, blame anyone else but Kinshasa and when blood is spilled, point fingers outward. Always invent enemies.
On Tuesday, the regime’s loudest online megaphones flooded social media with claims that M23, allegedly backed by RDF, committed killings, torture and rape in Izege and Ikoma in Walungu territory. No evidence, no verification, just the usual outrage packaged for clicks.
Anyone familiar with M23 knows this script does not hold. Even without mentioning RDF, whose forces are nowhere near M23 positions, the profile of those fighters is known. Disciplined, structured and professional. These are soldiers fighting to reclaim rights in a country wrecked by catastrophic leadership, not roaming militias acting on impulse.
The crimes described by (propaganda) Minister Patrick Muyaya’s shills have a very familiar signature. Looting. Rape. Arbitrary killings. Targeting of Tutsi civilians. These are the trademarks of Wazalendo and their allies. FARDC elements, FDLR remnants, Burundian forces operating in the shadows. Eastern Congo knows this pattern too well. Like a thief shouting thief in the market, the guilty rush to accuse.
What is truly baffling is that Criminal ruler Tshisekedi continues to recycle this approach. War has enriched him and his inner circle, but it has only deepened the misery of ordinary Congolese. Villages burn, camps overflow, insecurity spreads, yet the same lies look to be the order of the day, as if it will change anything.
Tshisekedi learned nothing, or worse, he learned and chose to forget and that is how he hoped propaganda worked, through his usual playbook. Accuse first, repeat often, hope confusion does the rest.
Walungu narrative is not about justice or victims, it is about diversion, it is about projecting crimes committed by Kinshasa backed forces onto convenient scapegoats. It is about evading accountability even when it doesn’t serve anything with regard to peace process.
Eastern Congo does not need imaginary massacres tweeted from Kinshasa, it needs truth. It needs responsibility. It needs leadership that stops hiding behind propaganda while arming chaos.
As 2026 begins, one thing is already clear. For Kinshasa, scapegoating remains policy and blame games remain the strategy.