I spent a good chunk of 2025 autistically fixated on the gruesome history of the D.R.C, Rwanda and Burundi. I have found a lot of books and other materials about the Congo Free State atrocities, Leopold's role in dividing Africa, the Force Publique, the rubber boom and how it connects with the Putumayo genocide in Brazil, and I have found out about Mark Twain and Conan Doyle's roles in making it public to the European crowds, about an Irish nationalist, Roger Casement, who exposed both genocides, who is considered a father of human rights investigations and an incredibly impressive person.
There is also a little-known planned famine in Rwanda and Burundi between 1943 and 1945, which killed 50,000 people.
I have continued to read about the Ikiza, the genocide of 300,000 Hutus by its Tusi population in 1970 and the subsequent massacres in 1993 of 100,000 more, which preceded the Rwandan genocide. Of course, after the genocide there were more massacres during the First Congo War, aprox 200,000 people. There is of course also the genocide of the Congo's pygmy population, "Effacer le tableau", 60,000 more. Finally, we get to the D.R.C. today and the mass food insecurity affecting about 23 million people.
This all started with my long fixation on Heart of Darkness, which is set in the Congo during Leopold's rule itself, which I got from being a fan of Apocalypse Now.
Now at the very end of 2025, I find out that in January a group of Romanian mercenaries failed to hold Goma against a group of M28 (backed by Rwanda ) insurgents and were sent to Burundi. Potra, who previously led this group of P.M.Cs was arrested in Bucharest in 2024 for attempting a coup here, in Romania.
There is more to this, but the idea is that this feels like a schizo "this is my destiny" moment; almost everything seems to connect in some way now. I can't help but be drawn like a magnet to this conflict and region; I'm definitely dedicating an important chunk of my life to this now.