By International Affairs Correspondent
A storm of anger and condemnation is building across Central Africa after incendiary statements by Charles Ntenze, who has accused Rwandan President Paul Kagame of thriving on bloodshed and human suffering.
Ntenze, a figure within the embattled Banyamulenge community, did not mince words. Speaking to journalists after a series of high-level regional visits, he delivered a chilling indictment: Kagame, he said, “does not want to see people alive—he wants to see them dead, because he profits from death.”
This is not merely rhetoric. It is an accusation that strikes at the heart of decades of violence that have turned eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo into one of the world’s most enduring humanitarian catastrophes.
A Region Held Hostage by Power and Fear
Ntenze’s remarks came after his visit to Burundi, where he publicly thanked President Évariste Ndayishimiye for what he described as efforts to protect Banyamulenge civilians in Minembwe—a region synonymous with massacres, displacement, and abandonment.
From there, he traveled to Uvira, meeting provincial authorities and amplifying a message that many fear to speak publicly: that powerful actors in the region benefit from perpetual instability.
For years, critics have alleged that the chaos in eastern Congo is not accidental, but engineered—a brutal system where war becomes business, and human lives are reduced to collateral in a ruthless geopolitical game.
Silence, Denial, and a Pattern Too Familiar
The government of Rwanda, led by Kagame, has long rejected accusations of interference in Congolese affairs. Official statements emphasize national security concerns and the presence of hostile armed groups near its borders.
But for many observers, such denials ring hollow.
The pattern, they argue, is painfully consistent: cycles of violence erupt, militias multiply, civilians suffer—and accountability never comes. Those who dare to speak out, like Ntenze, risk intimidation, exile, or worse.
Breaking the Fear Barrier
What makes Ntenze’s statement different is not just its severity—it is its defiance.
In a region where silence is often enforced through fear, his words cut through with dangerous clarity. They echo a growing frustration among communities who feel trapped between armed groups, neglected by governments, and ignored by the international community.
A Warning to the Region—and the World
If these accusations are dismissed or ignored, activists warn, the consequences could be catastrophic. Words like these do not emerge in a vacuum—they are born from lived trauma, mass displacement, and decades of unresolved violence.
The Great Lakes region stands at a crossroads: continue down a path where power is maintained through fear and bloodshed, or confront the uncomfortable truths that voices like Ntenze are bringing into the open.
Because if the claim that leaders profit from death is even partially true, then the crisis in eastern Congo is not just a tragedy—it is a scandal of global proportions.
