The Democratic Republic of Congo’s armed forces (FARDC) declared it will cut all ties and collaboration with the rebel group FDLR operating in the eastern part of the country.
The FDLR is a UN-sanctioned terrorist group based in the country’s east and whose leaders are accused of perpetrating the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
In a video message shared on the FARDC account on Tuesday, November 21, spokesperson Maj. Gen. Sylvain Ekenge, said all soldiers were informed of a “strict ban on establishing or maintaining any contact … with the FDLR.”
Ekenge said violators of the directive would be arrested and face the law.
“The principle of zero tolerance is now strictly applied,” he said.
The FDLR was founded in May 2000 with the help of the Congolese political and military authorities, a fact admitted by one of its founders and former vice president, Straton Musoni, who now lives in Rwanda.
The FARDC ’s announcement comes after months of calls from regional and international organisations to end its collaboration with the FDLR, especially in the ongoing war with the M23 rebels in eastern DR Congo.
The conflict in particular has led to diplomatic tensions between Rwanda and DR Congo, which accuses Kigali of supporting the rebels. Rwanda dismisses the allegation, saying the rebellion is a Congolese issue.
Some members of the genocidal group, Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) who were captured by M23 fighters, while fighting alongside FARDC soldiers in Eastern DR Congo in December 2022. Courtesy
The directive came one day after the visit by White House Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to Rwanda and DR Congo where she met with Presidents Paul Kagame and Felix Tshisekedi.
The White House said in a statement following Haines’s meeting with the two presidents that it “plan to take specific steps to reduce current tensions by addressing the respective security concerns of both countries.”
The US has on numerous occasions condemned the collaboration of the FARDC and the FDLR.
The Rwandan government has for years called on the DR Congo government to end any ties and support to the FDLR, which launched attacks on its territory throughout the past two decades.
An October 2019 attack by one of the FDLR factions killed 14 civilians in Musanze District, Northern Province.
The FDLR was created by remnants of Interahamwe militia and the former Rwandan army responsible for the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
The militia is accused of spreading hate speech and violence against the Congolese Tutsi communities.
The M23 rebels, whose stated mission is to protect Tutsi communities from the FDLR and its allied militias, says the genocidal group is integrated in the army.
It remains to be seen how the FARDC can dissociate itself from the FDLR, in spite of their longstanding ties.
The FDLR, or Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, is composed in part of former Rwandan soldiers and Hutu militiamen responsible for perpetrating genocidal massacres of Tutsis during 1994’s genocide in Rwanda.
The group fled into eastern DRC after the genocide and has remained embedded as a violent armed faction in the region.
The surprise move signifies a shift in Congo’s strategy in attempting to neutralise armed groups destabilising North Kivu and South Kivu border provinces. UN experts recently exposed secret coordination between senior FARDC officers and FDLR combatants.
Rwanda, which has had hostile relations with DR Congo in the past, welcomed the declared severing of ties. But scepticism remains on whether Congo will follow through on actively confronting the Hutu group without outside pressure. Estimates put FDLR forces at 500–600 fighters.
