Sibomana Hitimana was one of 642 Rwandan returnees who crossed from DR Congo at the Grande Barrière border post in Rubavu District on Thursday, May 22. Sibomana, 35, left Rwanda in 2005 and settled in Masisi as a businessman dealing in scrap metal. He arrived in the third group of hundreds of Rwandans who crossed the border into Rwanda from DR Congo, where they had been held hostage by the FDLR, a group founded by remnants of perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. I went to Congo looking for a better life, narrated Sibomana. But we were held against our will and blocked from returning home. They told us that if we came back, we would be killed. He said he was still single. ALSO READ: Rwandan returnees from DR Congo hopeful for better life His chance to return came after the AFC/M23 rebels captured the eastern Congolese city of Goma. His sentiments echo those of previous returnees, who said members of the FDLR scare Rwandans in Congo, many of fled in 1994, against returning to Rwanda saying they would be killed. “FDLR took my belongings, they would come and steal from us,” he said. My business was messy over the ongoing war, with very few things left behind.” Upon his arrival at Grande Barrière, Hitimana said he was very excited about the country’s hygiene and safety, a different experience from DR Congo. I am overjoyed after landing in my home country, where I was born, he said. It is clean, unlike back in Congo where trash is everywhere, dumped on streets. ALSO READ: Rwanda receives hundreds more returnees from DR Congo The group of returnees will be transported to the Nyarushishi Transit Camp in Rusizi District for a two-week stay facilitated by The Ministry of Emergency Management (MINEMA), in collaboration with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), ensuring their safe and smooth reintegration into Rwandan society. Figures from the ministry indicated that around 4,000 Rwandans have returned from DR Congo since January 2025, joining another 3.5 million repatriated since 1994.
