More than 400 militia fighters of one of the anti-Kigali groups being heavily assaulted by the Congolese army were captured on Wednesday, according to media reports. Congolese online newspaper, 7SUR7.CD, reported that members of a militia group known as the Conseil National pour la Renaissance et la Démocratie (CNRD) surrendered in many numbers while others were captured during Congolese army raids in Kabare and Walungu territories in South Kivu Province. CNRD is a splinter group the FDLR—an offshoot of the forces and militia groups that crossed into DR Congo – nearly 26 years ago – after slaughtering more than a million people during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. “More than 400 militia members of the CNRD/FDLR rebel group surrendered and others were captured during the operations. The enemy is routed and has taken refuge in the bush,” Maj Gen Akili Muhindo Mundos, the Congolese army’s commander of the 33rd Military Region – South Kivu and Maniema Provinces – was quoted saying. The FARDC proceeded to surround them in the forest in order to force them to lay down arms, he added. The militias’ latest setback comes just two days after, the DR Congo government on Monday handed Rwanda 291 CNRD/FDLR militia fighters. Last weekend, 1,951 fighters of the same militia group and their dependants were captured in the past few days during ongoing military operations in the high plateaus of Kalehe territory, in South Kivu Province. The DR Congo army has stepped up an offensive against anti-Kigali terror groups in an ongoing effort to rout all foreign armed militias based there. Most of the Congolese army’s clashes with anti-Rwanda militia are concentrated in Kalehe territory where CNRD – part of the larger MRCD Ubumwe political platform led by, among others, Belgium-based former Rwandan Prime Minister Faustin Twagiramungu, has been entrenched. The group is led by former FDLR vice president ‘Lt Gen’ Laurent Ndagijimana, alias, Wilson Irategeka or Rumbago. Its military wing, FLN, is led by ‘Lt Gen’ Habimana Hamada. Reports indicate that FLN has lost all its strongholds in populated areas and forced to run for safety in the dense Kahuzi-Biega National Park, a protected area near Bukavu town in eastern DR Congo. The FLN first raided a Rwandan village near the border with Burundi in June, last year, before another attack in December, when three passenger service vehicles were ambushed inside Nyungwe Forest. Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi has vowed to deal with the problem of insecurity in his country’s restless east where a myriad of militia – local and foreign – have wreaked havoc for decades. In September, the Congolese army killed the former FDLR supreme commander of the genocidal militia Sylvestre Mudacumura, who had evaded capture for over a decade. The purge continued and, early last month, ‘Gen’ Juvénal Musabyimana, alias Jean-Michel Africa, the commander of RUD-Urunana, another splinter group, was killed in another operation in Binza, Rutchuru. Congolese forces took him out during an operation close to the border with Uganda which, despite continuous denials, is reported to be supporting the group. Sources have revealed that RUD-Urunana was created by Ugandas intelligence with the specific mission of destabilizing Rwanda under the coordination of Philemon Mateke, Uganda’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs in charge of Regional cooperation. In December last year, Congolese security organs arrested FDLR spokesperson Ignace Nkaka, alias LaForge Fils Bazeye, and ‘Lt Col’ Jean-Pierre Nsekanabo, its head of intelligence. The two were returning from Uganda after attending a meeting with another anti-Rwanda group, RNC, led by fugitive Kayumba Nyamwasa. They were transferred to Kigali and are now on trial. A UN report of experts released in December, last year, indicated that several anti-Kigali groups, including Nyamwasa’s RNC joined hands and set up a training base in eastern DR Congo. Several RNC fighters, including Captain (rtd) Charles ‘Sibo’ Sibomana, formerly the group’s second in command, were also recently killed. Others such as RNC’s top commander Major (rtd) Habib Mudathiru, were arrested and handed over to Rwanda and are now on trial.
