Tshisekedi regime claims “FDLR is only a pretext for Rwanda”, so why did he sign to dismantle it in Washington?

This Saturday in Kolwezi, in the Lualaba province of DRC, Patrick Muyaya, the Tshisekedi regime’s mouthpiece, attempted to rewrite reality, with his characteristic mendacity.

He told Congolese citizens that the FDLR, formed by individuals who fled Rwanda in 1994, cannot be considered a serious threat more than three decades later.

He pointed to past joint operations between FARDC and RDF, claiming these efforts had
“already neutralized the group’s leadership”, and repatriated thousands of fighters.

From this, Muyaya drew a convenient conclusion, that the conflict in eastern DRC is not about security at all. It is about minerals.

This argument wrong but politically useful to the regime of Tshisekedi.

The FDLR has evolved into a structured armed organization with recruitment networks for years. Muyaya keeps concealing the role of his regime in helping FDLR leaders recruit and be trained by the Republican guard.

What makes Muyaya’s narrative even more deceptive is its contradiction with his own government’s actions.

Tshisekedi cannot sign an international agreement promising the dismantling of the FDLR, then turn around and allow his spokesperson to publicly dismiss it as irrelevant. Both positions cannot be true at the same time.

This is a deliberate attempt to speak two different truths to two different audiences.

To international partners, the regime acknowledges the FDLR because it must. The threat is documented, its presence observed, and its history understood. To deny it outright would undermine Kinshasa’s credibility and weaken its diplomatic standing.

But to the domestic population, a different story is told. The threat is minimized. Responsibility is shifted elsewhere. The regime avoids confronting difficult questions about its own failures to restore security and authority in eastern DRC.

This dual narrative reveals a deeper problem. It is easier to reshape perception than to resolve reality.

The people of the DRC deserve honesty, not political storytelling. They deserve leaders who confront the root causes of instability, not leaders who adjust their message depending on the audience before them.