From February 1 to 2, delegations from AFC/M23 and the Kinshasa regime sat in Doha, officially engaged in peace talks. At the same moment, belligerent Tshisekedi bombarded Minembwe targeting Banyamulenge community.
That single fact tells us more. For the Tshisekedi and his regime, peace is not a commitment. It is a tactic.
Context matters. Days before the Doha meetings, AFC/M23 withdrew from Uvira. The move was presented openly as a gesture of goodwill, meant to ease tensions, respect the ceasefire, and create space for dialogue. It was a clear signal that talks should proceed without the pressure of guns.
Kinshasa read that signal differently. It saw a rare opportunity to persecute Banyamulenge community. The regime moved to energize its deadly coalition on the ground. Minembwe was bombarded. Banyamulenge were targeted. Tshisekedi wanted any political outcome to come from Doha or anywhere else only after he had finished a campaign of violence against a community he has long allowed to be demonized.
Realistically, bombing Minembwe is not an abstract act of war. Minembwe is a civilian locality, overwhelmingly inhabited by Banyamulenge, a Congolese Tutsi community that has faced systematic persecution for decades. When shells land there, they do not choose between fighters and children. The victims are known in advance.
After the M23 withdrawal from Uvira, Banyamulenge communities in Minembwe and surrounding areas were subjected to coordinated attacks, communications blackouts, and the rebuilding of a humanitarian blockade. Roads were cut. Aid was restricted. Entire populations were isolated and punished.
This reveals a pattern. For this coalition, peace is useful only when it buys time. Once time is secured, violence resumes. Civilians are starved. Communities like the Banyamulenge are treated as enemies for the crime of existing. Hate has been cultivated and normalized.
So when Minembwe is bombed during negotiations, we should stop calling it a failure of peace. It is evidence that peace was never the goal. It is yet a camouflage of a silent genocide
Bombing Minembwe is killing Banyamulenge.History must record it clearly.