From June 26 to August 24, 2025, the Civil Society of Ituri published a grim balance sheet of Tshisekedi’s state of siege: 163 civilians massacred, 33 injured, 31 women raped, including elderly women, 423 livestock stolen, 69 shops looted, seven vehicles burned, and the desecration of Lopa Parish.
These atrocities are a direct outcome of Tshisekedi’s so-called “L’état de siège,”.
History shows that such militarization in Congo has never been about protection. From colonial force publique expeditions to Mobutu’s brutal campaigns against Katangese secessionists, the logic was always the same: regimes impose themselves through fear and bloodshed.
But Tshisekedi is much worse than any predecessor; he is an ethnic cleanser, brutal like Leopold III.
This conclusion is confirmed by abundant documentation. Reports from the United Nations, testimonies of victims, and analyses by independent experts all converge on the same fact: senior FARDC officers have been directly involved in creating armed groups like ADF and CODECO and in planning massacres.
Just as Mobutu’s generals armed militias in Shaba to both control and destroy local populations, today Tshisekedi’s officers organize violence under the cover of “restoring order.”
First truth is thus established: Tshisekedi is the primary political perpetrator of the massacres in Ituri. By declaring the state of siege single-handedly, he concentrated power in his hands and assumed responsibility for the killings. This recalls Mobutu’s personal decrees during the 1970s, where “special measures” always meant more repression. Then, as now, extermination was dressed up as “restoring state authority.”
Second truth: the violence is meticulously planned. Tshisekedi’s military doctrine, like colonial counterinsurgency before it, relies on terror as a tool of subjugation. Through massacres, forced displacement, and the destruction of livelihoods, civilians are reduced to submission. Far from protecting the Congolese, the state of siege institutionalizes their suffering as a method of governance.
Third truth: the UN, the EU, and the major powers are perfectly aware of this reality yet remain silent. As during the Cold War, when Mobutu’s brutality was overlooked in exchange for access to Congo’s minerals, today Tshisekedi enjoys that same indulgence. They covet the vast territory’s minerals and in return, they tolerate a policy of extermination against the Congolese people.
Shame on them!
ellenkampire