Close to 2,000 militiamen and dependants of one of the anti-Kigali groups embroiled in battles with the Congolese army (FARDC) were captured in the past week, according to media reports. Congolese online publication, 7SUR7.CD, on Sunday, reported that 1,951 fighters of the militia group known as the Conseil National pour la Renaissance et la Démocratie (CNRD) and their dependents were captured 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 Rwandan terror groups in an ongoing effort to rout all foreign armed militias based there. According to 7SUR7.CD, the Congolese army commander in the region, Maj Gen Charles Akili Muhindo Mundos, said ion a press release that lots of arms and munitions were seized, and destroyed, from the group which was routed from its strongholds. “In the high plateaus of Kalehe, the headquarters and all positions of CNRD were destroyed, 1951 combatants and dependents including 120 elements from different local armed groups with weapons and munitions were captured in the ongoing operations. They are gathered together in Nyamunyunyi, Bitale, Cifunzi and Numbi. These figures are subject to change as operations continue,” reads part of Mundos’ statement. The Congolese General also made it clear that forces under his command are determined to pursue the militias up to their last trenches. Gen Mundos noted that “the FARDC being respectful of International Humanitarian Law,” the women and children of the militia group are duly handed over to Provincial authorities for the formalities of their repatriation. Gen Mundos, among others, calls on Congolese armed groups to disassociate themselves feom foreign armed groups and surrender to the FARDC. Most of the Congolese army’s clashes with anti-Rwanda militia are concentrated in the areas of Kalehe territory, where the CNRD – part of the larger MRCD Ubumwe political platform led by, among others, Belgium-based former Rwandan Prime Minister Faustin Twagiramungu, is entrenched. The CNRD is one of the groups that parted ways with FDLR, an offshoot of the forces and militia groups that crossed into DR Congo from Rwanda after slaughtering more than a million people during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, in 2016. The CNRD 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. 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. DR Congo’s President Félix Tshisekedi has vowed to deal with the problem of insecurity in his country, especially in the east where a myriad of militia are wreaking havoc. In September, the Congolese army killed the former supreme commander of the genocidal militia FDLR Sylvestre Mudacumura, who had evaded capture for over a decade. 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. 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 later transferred to Kigali where they 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.
