Gatumba to Kishishe: Muyaya Warns Rwanda Exploits Pain

Remembering the Gatumba Massacre 21 years on

On the night of 13 August 2004, armed fighters, many of them members of the Burundian National Liberation Front (FNL), surrounded the Gatumba refugee camp on the Burundi-DRC border. By dawn, at least 152 Congolese Banyamulenge were dead and more than 106 were wounded. Banyamulenge is the local name for Congolese Tutsi families who have lived in South Kivu for generations. The attack occurred inside Burundi, just a few hundred metres from army and United Nations positions, yet soldiers did not intervene. Witnesses say the assailants poured gasoline on plastic shelters and shot people who tried to escape, sparing refugees from other ethnic groups.

Twenty‑one years later, survivors and their families gathered in Kinshasa, Bukavu, and other cities to mark the massacre’s anniversary. Alexis Gisaro Muvuni, Congo’s Minister of Urban Planning and a member of the Banyamulenge community, told the crowd that their suffering should never be exploited by foreign powers. “As long as the truth is suppressed, as long as justice is not done, cycles of violence will return,” he said, pointedly mentioning Rwanda. “Our community needs peace; it refuses to allow the suffering it has endured to be instrumentalised or exploited by foreign powers such as Rwanda, or by politicians who justify war in the east of our country.”

Government spokesman Patrick Muyaya echoed the sentiment. “Every life lost in Gatumba or today as a result of Rwandan aggression constitutes a wound for the nation,” he told mourners. “From Gatumba to Kishishe, from Binza to countless martyred villages, it is the same blood of Congolese that flows.” Muyaya reaffirmed President Félix Tshisekedi’s commitment to protect all citizens and praised the Banyamulenge community for rejecting armed groups who claim to fight on their behalf.

Justice denied – Who protected the killers?

The search for justice began almost immediately after the massacre. Human Rights Watch reported in September 2004 that the FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana publicly claimed responsibility for the attack; arrest warrants were issued for Habimana and FNL leader Agathon Rwasa, but neither was apprehended. Rwanda and Burundi each promised inquiries, and the UN Security Council called for an investigation, but no credible prosecutions followed. Burundian law allowed local courts to try genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed on its territory, yet “there have been several apparent war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Burundi since the promulgation of the May 8 statute, but no prosecutions under this law”.

This impunity has persisted for two decades. A 2019 Human Rights Watch review noted that the criminal case opened in 2013 stalled the following year. Survivors still await justice and compensation. One of the FNL leaders, Rwasa, remains a prominent opposition politician; he argues that a 2006 ceasefire agreement grants him provisional immunity. The agreement does exclude crimes against humanity, but Burundian authorities have not tested the provision in court.

Survivors feel abandoned by national and international jurisdictions. At the 21st commemoration in August 2025, Jules Rutebuka of the Coordination des Mutualités Banyamulenge told Rwandan outlet IGIHE that repeated legal complaints have been ignored. “We filed cases in Burundi against those who admitted responsibility, including Agathon Rwasa and Pasteur Habimana, but they still walk free.

The survivors’ organisation Gatumba Refugees Survivors Foundation (GRSF) submitted files to courts in Burundi, Rwanda, and the International Criminal Court (ICC), but according to lawyer Innocent Nteziryayo, “no court has acted.” Many Banyamulenge believe political interests in Bujumbura and Kigali have shielded the perpetrators.

Exploiting suffering – Kigali’s Banyamulenge card