Keypoints:
- Tshisekedi orders international diplomatic campaign
- Genocost museum project moves forward
- Diaspora groups intensify justice demands
THE Democratic Republic of Congo is intensifying an international campaign for recognition, accountability and reparations over atrocities committed during nearly three decades of conflict, particularly in the country’s mineral-rich east.
President Félix Tshisekedi announced the renewed push on August 2, 2026, as Congolese communities marked the country’s National Day of Genocost.
The move signals Kinshasa’s effort to turn national remembrance into a wider diplomatic and legal campaign, while maintaining that only competent courts can determine whether particular crimes meet the legal definition of genocide.
Conflict’s devastating legacy
The commemoration marks the outbreak of the Second Congo War in 1998, which drew in several African states and numerous armed groups.
The conflict caused widespread loss of life and displacement, with millions believed to have died from violence and its indirect consequences, including hunger and disease.
Large-scale fighting formally ended in 2003, but violence has continued in eastern Congo, where armed groups remain active and millions have been forced from their homes.
This year’s theme, ‘Now that you know, what do you do?’, reflected the government’s attempt to turn remembrance into a campaign for truth, justice and reparations.
Diplomats given new instructions
At the official ceremony at the Genocost Memorial in Kinshasa, Tshisekedi said Congolese embassies and consulates had been instructed to promote what he called a ‘diplomacy of memory, truth and justice’.
‘This is neither a call to hatred nor an invitation to vengeance,’ he told mourners. ‘It is a call for truth, justice and remembrance.’
Tshisekedi stressed that the legal classification of genocide must be determined by competent judicial institutions.
The distinction matters because the 2010 UN Mapping Report documented 617 alleged serious violations committed in the DRC between 1993 and 2003, but did not itself make a judicial finding of genocide.
The renewed DRC Genocost campaign complements Kinshasa’s broader accountability efforts.
Museum project moves forward
Tshisekedi said the National Genocost Museum project had entered its operational phase, with preparatory studies and design work moving ahead.
The institution is expected to preserve archives, survivor testimonies, documentary evidence and research connected to mass violence in the DRC.
The National Day of Genocost was established under legislation enacted in December 2022 after years of advocacy by Congolese civil society and diaspora organisations.
The term combines ‘genocide’ and ‘cost’ to emphasise the human suffering and economic exploitation associated with the conflict.
Diaspora widens campaign
According to organisers, commemorative events were held in Paris, London and Brussels.
In London, CAYP hosted a forum examining links between human rights abuses, environmental damage and the extraction of cobalt and other critical minerals used in clean-energy technologies.
Those concerns reflect wider scrutiny of the human cost of cobalt production in the DRC.
Campaigners in Brussels called on Belgium and the wider international community to acknowledge the atrocities and support credible accountability mechanisms.
Civil society groups also held memorial events across the DRC.
Petition seeks wider support
FONAREV, the national victims’ reparations fund, said its international petition seeking recognition of atrocities in the DRC continued to attract support across Africa and beyond.
According to sources familiar with the initiative, campaigners later presented the petition during meetings with members of the European Parliament.
DRC ambassador to the United States Yvette Kapinga Ngandu said the pattern of violence had closely followed the location of the country’s mineral deposits.
Kinshasa argues that international recognition and credible accountability are essential to honour victims and break a cycle of violence that has persisted despite <a repeated regional peace initiatives.
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