Recently he launched a military offensive and only stopped short of capturing the eastern DR Congo town of Goma. He is Major General Laurent Nkunda. But a question lingers.

Who is Laurent Nkunda?

Many accounts say he was born in 1967 in North Kivu in Eastern DR Congo. He is a member of the Kinyarwanda speaking people of eastern DR Congo.

According to a BBC profile of the man, he studied Psychology at University. It has also been stated that he at one time worked as a teacher.

Nkunda according to some sources started his military career in 1993. The struggle that Gen Nkunda has championed in recent years started around 1996 and has taken different faces.

Following the defeat of the genocide government in 1994 in Rwanda, their army and its Interahamwe militia fled to the then Zaire.

In eastern Zaire, they set about re-organising to return to Rwanda for another fight. They found a lot of assistance in Mobutu, a staunch ally of the fallen Rwandan tyrant Juvenal Habyarimana. But at the same time, they embarked on a policy of killing the Tutsi of eastern Congo who spoke Kinyarwanda.

In late 1996, the then governor of South Kivu issued a decree ordering the Kinyarwanda speaking peoples known as the Banyamulenge, regarded as Tutsi to leave Congo. These people were indigenous to eastern Congo.

They rose up in arms and in a few weeks, an alliance of different groups was put up with the aim of defeating the kleptomaniac Mobutu regime. The alliance brought together four political forces.

These four groups that formed what came to be known as the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo- Zaire (AFDL) had leaders; Andrea Kisase Ngandu, Laurent Desire Kabila, Anselm Masasu Nindanga and Engineer Deogratius Bugera who represented the Tutsi Banyamulenge.
During the anti Mobutu insurrection, Nkunda is said to have participated in the war.

Around mid 1998, Kabila who had emerged as the leader of the alliance and had assumed power  a year earlier, fell out with his Kinyarwanda speaking allies after it became apparent that he had started hobnobbing with the Interahamwe.

Kabila ordered all Kinyarwanda speakers apart from the Interahamwe out of Congo-Kinshasha. This became the beginning of what has come to be termed as the second Congo war.

Nkunda then a Major according to reliable sources played a key role in military operations during the war against Kabila. He at one time was based in Kisangani.

Later after the Lusaka agreement that ended the second Congo war in 2003, a new government was formed in Kinshasha.

Laurent Kabila had already been assassinated and replaced by his son Joseph Kabila Kabange.

Nkunda was promoted to the rank of Colonel and later appointed a General in the Congolese army around this time.

In the defence of his people

However, Nkunda refused to "integrate” units under his command into the new Congolese army arguing that there were not enough guarantees for his Tutsi people against the FDLR/Interahamwe.

Since 2004, he has been carrying out operations to defend his people against the Interahamwe. He increasingly became concerned that the Kinshasha government continued to support the Interahamwe.

Until recently, he had limited his war to the defence of his people and guaranteeing their survival. But recently, according to BBC he said that he intends to expand his war to liberate all the people of Congo, if the government does not fulfill his demands.

Nkunda is a Pentecostal Christian who according to journalists that have interviewed him, appears to be more of an intellectual than a rebel leader. They say he will at times quote Ghandi or Marc Arthur to stress his points or explain his strategy.

He is said to be a married man with six children. He is also said to be a cattle keeper with a farm. Those who have met him speak of a charming and charismatic leader. Nkunda is fluent in English, French, Kishwahili and Kinyarwanda.

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