A new report by the AFC/M23 rebels has shown that the DR Congo armed forces (FARDC) continue to collaborate with the FDLR, and some the militia commanders lead operations of the army in the east of the country. The report compiled by the AFC/M23-appointed special judicial commission found the FARDC and FDLR elements collaborated in combat operations as recently as August 19, with the knowledge of the Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi. ALSO READ: FDLR is entrenched in DR Congo Presidential Guard, says Makenga It has been established that Mr. Félix Tshisekedi recruited from everywhere, recycled, armed, financed and integrated FDLR elements into both combat units and his personal guard, said Delion Kimbulungu, head of the judicial commission, who presented the report at a news conference in Goma on Friday, August 22. Kimbulungu said that between August 1 and 6, three FARDC rotations supplied FDLR-FOCA units in Mpeti in the Walikale Territory. From August 5 to 19, another FDLR-FOCA unit fought alongside Guidon SIMWERAY's NDC-R militia and the FARDC in Pinga, Walikale. He added that in the MINEMBWE highlands in South Kivu, an FDLR general named Hamada Harerimana alias Junior Mulamba coordinated operations within the FARDC. ALSO READ: UN experts report says 'Congo collaborates with FDLR' Kimbulungu also noted that the collaboration of the Congolese armed forces and the FDLR had been exposed when one militia commander, Brig Gen Ezechiel Gakwerere, was apprehended in the battlefield in March and handed over to Rwanda, where he was wanted for his role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. ALSO READ: FDLR 'General' linked to Queen Gicanda murder captured in DR Congo, repatriated Gakwerere, who had the rank of Sous-Lieutenant in 1994, was the commander of the first company in Nouvelle Formule at the Ecole des Sous-Officiers (ESO), a military academy in Butare, is said to have trained members of the former Rwandan army (FAR) and Interahamwe militia who took part in the killing campaign in the area. Gakwerere's name is mentioned a dozen times in the former UN tribunal’s (ICTR) indictment of Captain Ildephonse Nizeyimana, the former commandant of ESO), who was convicted of Genocide, including ordering the 1994 murder of Rosalie Gicanda, the last queen of Rwanda. The collaboration between the FDLR and the Congolese army has been a point of concern raised by the Rwandan government for years. The leaders of the genocidal militia, whose fighters have been integrated into the FARDC ranks during the war with AFC/M23 rebels, are under sanctions by the UN and the US government.
