Kinshasa: (Archyde.com)
Life in Kinshasa was going well for Rwandan mother-of-two Zawadi, until a fight in the distance stoked anger in Congo once morest her country as videos circulated on social media of men with machetes roaming the city streets in search of Rwandans.
The problems began in May, when the M-23 rebel movement resumed its fierce fighting once morest the army in the eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo following years of relative lull. Congo accuses Rwanda of supporting the M-23 movement, which Rwanda denies.
Hundreds of kilometers to the west, specifically in the capital, Kinshasa, Zawadi watched with horror videos circulated on social media of anti-Rwanda demonstrations, and people she knew personally began publishing anti-Rwanda images and slogans.
“I can’t take my children to school,” said Zawadi, who declined to give her last name due to safety concerns. I can’t go to the market. I have to stay at home.”
“Even my business partners, when they see me, say hateful words to me,” Zawadi said by phone from her home.
In early June, a widely circulated video showed some men with machetes with their faces wrapped in Congolese flags loitering on a Kinshasa street in front of a Rwandan-owned shop.
Rwandans in Congo victims of popular anger at rebel attacks
