FDLR resurfacing poses huge threat to Great Lakes security, say experts

The recent attack on Congolese soldiers by the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) in a military camp at Rumangabo, 50 kilometres north of the North Kivu provincial capital Goma, shows a trend of increased activity by the rebels in the past few weeks.

According to military officials, the Rwandan militants made off with a cache of weapons and killed three soldiers and their wives in the Friday attack, a day after Rwandan and Congolese defence chiefs met in Kigali to firm up their joint cooperation against the group.

However, analysts and sources close to Kinshasa say the successful FDLR attacks are a sign that the group is reviving and has been expanding its capability to strike at military bases in eastern DRC.

FDLR members are widely accused of carrying out the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda before fleeing into DRC following the successful liberation war waged by Rwanda Patriotic Front against the then regime of president Juvenal Habyarimana. An estimated one million people were killed in the 100-day countrywide massacre.

The recent meeting between Rwanda’s Defence Minister Gen James Kabarebe and his Congolese counterpart Aime Ngoi-Mukena Lusa-Diese resolved that the two neighbouring countries should work together to eradicate the FDLR and repatriate ex-M23 combatants holed up in Rwanda after they fled to the country following their defeat in 2013 by the 20,000-plus-strong UN Stabilisation Mission in the Congo (Monusco).

New chapter

“The Kigali meeting has opened a new chapter in our bilateral cooperation to resolve security challenges facing the two countries, particularly the eradication of FDLR, which remains in the eastern Democratic Republic Congo and continues to pose a threat to the two countries, and the repatriation of ex-M23 combatants cantoned in Rwanda,” the generals said in a statement.

Some FDLR fighters have been abandoning their posts and surrendering to Rwanda under the demobilisation programme that has seen more than 13,000 ex-combatants desert the fugitive group over the years.

However, recent high-profile assaults on the Congolese army in eastern Congo are giving credence to the view that the group is not getting weaker despite losing fighters almost every week.

Gen Kabarebe says although “FDLR is not a threat to Rwanda in terms of military might and capacity,” Rwanda is more worried about the impact of the group’s propaganda and its ability to destabilise the entire region.

FDLR, whose troop level is estimated to be around 4,000, has ignored several UN ultimatums to disarm voluntarily.

The recent one was issued on January 2 and, since then, the group has been terrorising civilians in eastern DRC and launched several assaults against the Congolese army, partly due to the inaction of the UN to back up its threats with action.

Christoph Vogel, a Central Africa researcher who has written extensively on the Congolese conflict, warns that since “late 2013 the number of armed movements has even increased” and that there has been a rise in the frequency “of major attacks by FDLR.”

The rights group Project Enough has also warned that FDLR “is currently regrouping, mobilising political support and continuing to pose a regional security threat.”

The militia is said to benefit from illegal mining and trade of gold and other natural resources that it loots in DRC. According to a source close to authorities in Kigali and Kinshasa who requested anonymity because of the nature of his position, the militia is thriving because of “lack of joint military operations against the FDLR.
The source told The EastAfrican that, while political will is essential to rooting out the militia, “some regional and international actors remain major enablers of FDLR.”

The deal between Rwanda and DRC, however, is expected to pave the way for closer collaboration between the two countries in rooting out FDLR, which has been slowly expanding its capabilities by assaulting military bases and taking off with weapons.

In an assault on September 5 that received minimal reporting, about 600 FDLR rebels overran Congolese army positions in eastern DRC, about 36 kilometres from Goma, killing 14 Congolese soldiers and injuring 21 before retreating to their base in Nyamulagira Volcano with a heavy assortment of military weapons.

According to the source, the cache of weapons included anti-aircraft guns, rocket-propelled grenades (RPGS) and several AK47 rifles.

OP The East African