2023-05-18 13:07:41
Activists demonstrate against the holding of the Games of La Francophonie in Kinshasa
Congolese citizens demonstrated this Thursday, in front of the French Embassy in Kinshasa, against the organization of the Francophone Games in the DRC this summer.
The DRC accuses Rwanda of supporting the M23 rebellion, a predominantly Tutsi armed group, support denied by Kigali but corroborated by UN experts. (illustrative photo)
AFP
Kinshasa is to host the 9th edition of the Games of La Francophonie from July 28 to August 6. The demonstrators, who were about twenty, denounced the Francophonie, likening it to “a form of mental colonization”, but also the fact that the secretary general of the International Organization of La Francophonie is the former Rwandan minister Louise Mushikiwabo.
“Our country is under attack, we cannot celebrate at the Games and at the same time observe the massacres”, declared Josué Bung, of the “Sang Lumumba” movement. “Rwanda is not a French-speaking country (…) How can a Rwandan woman coordinate the Games of La Francophonie?” he was indignant, before reading a memorandum describing the holding of these games in the DRC as “provocation” and “humiliation” for the Congolese.
The young activist and the other organizers of the demonstration were then taken away by the police, without violence.
The DRC accuses Rwanda of supporting the M23 rebellion (“March 23 Movement”, a majority Tutsi armed group), support denied by Kigali but corroborated by UN experts.
At the call of the same movements, demonstrators, brandishing Russian flags, had protested at the beginning of March last in front of the French embassy against the visit to Kinshasa of French President Emmanuel Macron.
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