Description

MARCH 2026

Thirty years ago, all parameters were in place for regime change in Congo: US military assistance to Paul Kagame’s troops in Rwanda, Western political cover for an invasion, US satellite data needed for Rwanda’s military sweep, and secure financing from multinationals, including Canadian companies, poised to profit from the most resource-rich nation in Africa.

Crucial to this overthrow were the concerted international efforts to cover up or at least minimize the body count associated with the invasion, which marked the beginning of a long and ugly conflict that has stripped Congo of its sovereignty, its safety and its resources.

Rwanda’s 30-Year Assault on Congo traces the roots of Kagame’s campaign and the impunity granted by the United States and its allies. It explores the early US support to Kagame’s rebels from the 1980s to their seizure of power in Rwanda in 1994, via Uganda, Washington’s geopolitical lynchpin on the African continent.

The author examines the tactics Rwanda has used to infiltrate and subjugate Congo in a military campaign that has left millions of Congolese dead, created wealth for Rwandan oligarchs and enriched multinationals and international elites.

Rwanda’s 30-Year Assault on Congo is the second in a series of TRACTION BOOKS from BARAKA BOOKS. Stay tuned for more news. See the first here.

Judi Rever is an investigative journalist from Montreal who covered the overthrow of Congo’s dictator Mobutu Sese Seko and the humanitarian crisis that ensued in 1997. She has investigated atrocities committed by Paul Kagame’s forces for 30 years, and is the author of the award-winning book, In Praise of Blood, The Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front.

Reviews and Praise

“The book is excellent. A very valuable and concise overview of the conflict and atrocities of Rwanda backed by the US and UK.” Jeremy Kuzmarov, read the review at CovertActionMagazine 

LAUNCH 20 March 2026: Rwanda’s 30-Year Assault on Congo. Watch the full event here.

“Rever’s book is an excellent primer for those who find the Democratic Republic of the Congo too distant and too complex for comprehension. Big bombs don’t fall from the sky, as they do in Gaza, and now Iran, and the press is only incidentally interested, so it’s easy to ignore. However, the human suffering is of no less magnitude, and the West bears no less responsibility. These 80 pages bring it all into sharp focus without overwhelming the reader with unfamiliar detail.” Ann Garrison, The Black Agenda Report

“It is not surprising to read of American officials denying their deadly influence or of Canadian and European mining companies investing in a country’s devastation. But it is rare to read such a critical and certain account of large-scale destabilization.” Literary Review of Canada, April 2026

“Imagine being fed a false narrative about a true historical tragedy, and hearing that narrative for so long that it becomes unquestionable truth.” —Judy Rever speaking at the Oslo Freedom Forum here.

“Rever chronicles the largely unreported and cynically discounted view of the Rwandan genocide. . .. In making her case, she risks everything—her life included—to expose the crimes of Rwanda’s current brutal government. In Praise of Blood is an undeniably important story told by a remarkably brave writer.”—2018 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction jury citation

“This is an unflinching account of one of the most ruthlessly executed and cynically exploited human catastrophes of the twentieth century.”— Linden MacIntyre

“Rever’s account will prove difficult to challenge.”— The New York Review of Books

“Explosive. . .. Her account suggests that the Rwandan state’s narrative of the genocide is not just one-sided and simplistic, but fundamentally false.”—Kate Cronin-Furman, The Los Angeles Review of Books

“Clearly, this is journalism at its best. Rever’s contribution is destined to become required reading for anyone claiming competence on the Rwanda Genocide.”—René Lemarchand, author of The Dynamic of Violence in Central Africa

“[Rever] shows in great and grueling detail how Hutu women and men, children and elderly were slaughtered on a massive scale. . . . These convincing findings can no longer be ignored.”—Filip Reyntjens, author and researcher