Rwanda has questioned the Democratic Republic of Congo’s decision to return Major General Sylvain Ekenge as spokesperson for its armed forces, nine months after he was suspended over remarks targeting Tutsi women.
Ekenge’s return became public on Sept. 25 when a FARDC statement on an aircraft crash in Kenge, Kwango province, was signed by him in his capacity as army spokesman. The circumstances of his reinstatement were not immediately explained by the Congolese military.
Rwanda’s Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe said the decision raised questions about how Kinshasa views the remarks that led to Ekenge’s suspension.
In a post on X on Sept. 27, Nduhungirehe said Ekenge’s return was “troubling and inappropriate in many ways”, arguing that the move raised doubts over whether his earlier comments were simply his personal views.
Ekenge was suspended on Dec. 29, 2025, after remarks made two days earlier on state broadcaster RTNC in which he warned Congolese men about marrying Tutsi women and promoted claims about their families and children. The FARDC condemned the remarks at the time and said they did not represent the position of the army, the government or President Felix Tshisekedi.
Nduhungirehe said Ekenge had not faced judicial proceedings over the comments and questioned why he had now been restored to the same public-facing military role.
“This confirms, if there was still any doubt, that hate speech targeting Congolese Tutsi and genocidal ideology in the DRC are not the work of a few misguided individuals,” he said, describing them instead as a policy accepted by the state.
The Rwandan minister also criticised the way Ekenge’s return emerged, saying it was disclosed through a statement concerning the Kenge aircraft crash rather than through a separate announcement.
During Ekenge’s suspension, Lieutenant Colonel Mak Hazukay Mongba handled the army’s communications on an interim basis.
The return comes as relations between Rwanda and Congo remain strained over the conflict in eastern Congo, where Kinshasa and Kigali continue to accuse each other over the security situation.
The FARDC had not, as of Sept. 28, issued a separate explanation for Ekenge’s return.
