In 1994, following the Genocide against the Tutsi, two million perpetrators and bystanders fled to Zaire, where the remnant of the genocidal forces started attacking Rwanda without any reaction from the international community.

Despite the Rwandan government’s numerous calls for the UN and Kinshasa to disarm them and to move them away from Rwanda’s border, Mobutu let them flourish just a few meters from the border. They later reunited under the banner of the Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda (FDLR).

Since then, successive Congolese administrations have all sponsored groups openly calling for a return to a pre-1994 ethnicity-based fascist regime, depending on their needs of the day.

For instance, in 1998, after President Laurent-Désiré Kabila turned his back on his allies Rwanda and Uganda, that had helped him to remove President Mobutu Sese Seko; he found himself without an  army to fight the RCD, a rebel group which seized a big part of the territory within a few days. 

According to an International Crisis Group (ICG) report, President Kabila turned to high level officials from the former, genocidal administration. Thousands of members of the former Rwandan army (ex-FAR) and genocidal militias (interahamwe) who had fled to neighbouring countries were brought to Kinshasa. In total  more than 20,000 fighters were mobilised from the Central African Republic, Congo Brazzaville, Soudan, Zambia and Malawi. Ex-FAR soldiers and Interahamwe were officially considered as congolese troops  Starting from July 1998, they infiltrated Rwanda to command an insurrection in the northwest of the country, in Ruhengeri and Gisenyi.

Following the signing of a peace agreement between the DRC and the Kabila Government, former genocidal forces started to concentrate in the Eastern DRC, where they continued to spread genocidal ideology and targeted local Tutsi populations.

In all the years of its presence in the two Kivus, FDLR has transformed itself into a successful economic enterprise based on illicit trade and the imposition of taxes on the Congolese civilian population with the complicit of Congolese officials.

Other important economic activities are poaching (including illegal fishing), the gold trade and the exploitation of timber and hemp. FDLR do business because they have developed a network of complex relationships and have accomplices in the local and provincial authorities, other armed groups, the business community on all sides of the border and with key commanders of the Congolese army.

Today’s President Tshisekedi pretends that the FLDR no longer represents a threat to Rwanda but they are in a position to continue to spread genocide ideology freely across the region, and the wealth they have amassed by exploiting the resources and taxing the local population in areas they control gave them means to recruit a significant number of new members and build its offensive capabilities. 

Besides, reports from the UN Group of Experts and human rights organizations point to an alliance between the Congolese army (FARDC) and the FDLR as part of the FARDC’s operations against the M23 rebels. For instance, footages of FDLR fighting M23 were shared on social media by pro-FARDC journalists, and later were deleted, after realizing they shoot themselves in the foot.

The FDLR and Congolese armies have become long-time allies because their security and economic interests align. The FDLR provides trained officers to the underfunded, underequipped, and undertrained Congolese army, which in turn collaborates with them. The presence of these terrorists in DRC is not anecdotal but a reflection of a deeper problem.

As long as the reform of the security sector in DRC is not done and bad governance as well as corruption keep spreading freely in the DRC, the Congolese army will continue to depend on the expertise of FDLR, and the cycle of conflict will continue.

The FDLR are still a threat

Here are facts recently published that confirm what Rwanda has been saying:

• In October 2019, FDLR led an attack that killed 14 innocent civilians in Kinigi, Northern Rwanda
• The report of the UN’s Group of Experts confirms with evidence what other regional and international organizations have reported – the collaboration between the Congolese army (FARDC) and the genocidal militia FDLR. 
• The EU took sanctions against some members of FDLR. 
• The Special Advisor to the UN Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide, Alice Nderitu, has issued a report denouncing the massacres committed against the Banyamulenge of Congo by armed groups such as the FDLR. 
• Local citizens have confirmed that FDLR continues to grow in wealth and numbers, empowered by the protection it receives from the
• DRC government, the taxes it collects from local populations, and its control of key economic routes and mines. 

• These are fact and evidence-based statements, not claims. 

  1. FDLR poses an existential threat:

  ·     First, from their bases in eastern DRC they continue to recruit and spread genocide ideology freely across the region. 

  ·     Second, being in such a mineral-rich location, FDLR is able to amass wealth by exploiting the resources and taxing the local population in areas it controls. As a result, it is able to recruit significantly and build its offensive capabilities. 

  2. No government in the world can accept such a threat on its borders. Yet, the DRC government continues to work with a genocidal and terrorist group responsible for crimes against its own citizens. Congolese people should, in fact, hold their government accountable for failing to perform the core duty of any government–protect the citizens.