Jump to: Overview | Armed Groups in Eastern Congo | Current Policy | Solutions
The Congolese Army and many independent armed groups wreak havoc in eastern Congo by terrorizing communities and fighting for control of and access to mineral resources.
Overview
One of the greatest challenges in the Congo is that the Congolese Army and other independent armed groups terrorize the population for personal gain.
During Congo's two wars (1996-2002), independent armed groups took control of eastern Congo and continue to hold power in the area today.
In 2002 the Pretoria Accord peace treaty ended the war. This treaty provided for all the signatories' forces to combine and form one national army (the FARDC). However, many groups did not want to cede the economic and political power they had gained through the war to an army they did not trust.
Today, there are many armed groups operating in eastern Congo, in varying degrees of disarmament, re-integration, or fragmentation. Groups are formed along racial, ideological, and political lines, and some are supported by neighboring Rwanda and Uganda.
Armed Groups in Eastern Congo
Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) and Congolese National Police (PNC)
Congo's national army and police forces are addressed in the section on Security Sector Reform.
Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR)
The FDLRwas formed by the perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide and is on the U.S. State Department list of terrorist organizations. While the original soldiers were Rwandan exiles, most of the current FDLR soldiers have been recruited from refugee camps in eastern Congo (source). Between 6,000 and 8,000 FDLR fighters are currently estimated to operate in eastern Congo. The FDLR receives assistance and guidance from Rwandans in Europe, Africa, and the United States. Until recently, the FDLR reportedly received assistance from some Congolese government forces and coordinated military operations with the Congolese army (FARDC). Over the past year, the FDLR has reportedly intensified its recruitment campaigns and continues to terrorize civilians in eastern Congo.
What are Armed Groups?
Armed groups have the potential to employ arms in the use of force to achieve political, ideological or economic objectives. They are not within the formal military structures of States, State-alliances or intergovernmental organizations. Armed groups are not under the control of the State(s) in which they operate and can include: rebel movements, ethnic militias, and economic and military entrepreneurs.
National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP)
The CNDP is a DRC-based rebel group that was once one of the most destructive groups in eastern Congo, but has since disintegrated and transitioned to become a political party (source). Its main objective was to protect the Tutsi population in eastern Congo and to fight the FDLR. As one of the strongest rebel groups in eastern Congo, the CNDP perpetrated well-documented mass atrocities. Just a few examples include: the massacre of several hundred deserters in Kisangani in 2002 and days of pillage in Bukavu after it was seized by the CNDP in 2004. Also, in November 2008, the massacre of hundreds of unarmed civilians in Kiwanja, a tiny village northeast of Goma, during fighting to seize control of North Kivu.
The CNDP's leader, Laurant Nkunda, is currently under house arrest in Rwanda. Since its disintegration in 2009, many CNDP fighters integrated into the FARDC while others joined militia groups.
After his troops were integrated into the FARDC, CNDP commander Bosco Ntaganda became a Congolese Army General, despite being under indictment by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and the use of child soldiers. Now, Ntaganda continues to operate with impunity in eastern Congo.
Allied Democratic Forces (ADF)
The ADF is a Ugandan Muslim rebel group with limited activities in Uganda and DRC. In 2010, ADF forces were active in Beni district near the Ugandan border until 2010, when a FARDC operation dislodged ADF forces but also displaced an estimated 100,000 Congolese civilians, according to U.N. officials (source).
Mai Mai Militias
The Mai Mai is a loosely grouped collection of Congolese militia operating in eastern Congo. There are currently six main groups operating in the Kivus: the Mai-Mai Yakutumba, Raia Mutomboki, Mai-Mai Nyakiliba, Mai-Mai Fujo, Mai-Mai Kirikicho, and Resistance Nationale Congolaise. Mai Mai groups are often formed by combatants who refused to participate in FARDC reintegration processes, and tend to ascribe to autochthonous beliefs – meaning that they believe the land should belong to its original inhabitants. Mai Mai groups feel threatened by Rwandophone communities (Hutu and Tutsi), which they see as foreigners trying to take over their land and power (source). They are not unified under any political or racial affiliation, but all actively target civilians and U.N. peacekeeping forces in eastern Congo.
Coalition of Congolese Patriotic Resistance (PARECO)
PARECO was created in 2007 and is the largest Mai Mai militia group. The group worked closely with the FARDC through 2008. By 2010, most of PARECO integrated into the FARDC, except one faction, the Patriotic Alliance for a Free and Sovereign Congo, or APCLS, led by General Janvier Buingo Karairi. The APCLS is currently allied with FDLR and refuses to integrate into the FARDC (source).
The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)
The LRA is a Ugandan rebel group led by Joseph Kony that has been active since the mid-1980s. It has no clear political agenda. This ruthless militia directs its violence towards civilians and attacks local communities: massacring innocent people, razing villages, and abducting children and forcing them to serve as soldiers, porters, and sex slaves. It is currently active in parts of the Central African Republic and eastern Congo.
Current Policy
The Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR, is the most powerful armed group operating in eastern Congo and is on the U.S. State Department list of terrorist organizations. United Nations-led military efforts in 2009 and 2010 actually increased violent attacks in eastern Congo by provoking retaliatory attacks against civilians, killing 1,100 and creating 900,000 new internally displaced persons within Congo alone (source).
The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or MONUSCO , has attempted to increase its civilian protection efforts by forming “Joint Protection Teams” to bring together different U.N. civilian units and deploy them to vulnerable regions. However, because of limited resources and multiple missions, as well as the enormity of the human security crisis in eastern Congo, these efforts insufficeint.
There can be no peace in the Congo until the FDLR are dismantled. The U.S. is beginning to pay greater attention to alternative strategies to lure the FDLR out of the bush, but it should make this a high-level priority.
Solutions
The U.S. can engage with local and international actors such as the U.N. and Congolese government to deal with the problems created by armed groups in eastern Congo.
- Expand training of combat units to protect the most vulnerable and enhance MONUSCO’s Joint Protection Teams.
- Work with the Congolese government and other regional partners to design a new counter insurgency strategy that is more focused, and a smaller force made up of elite units targeted at FDLR leadership.
- Create incentives—through the U.N.-backed “DDR” initiatives—for the disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of rank-and-file combatants.
- Design a specialized demobilization and economic reintegration program for mid-level FDLR commanders. The FDLR is made up of a number of different elements, and the U.S., Rwanda, and other key actors should do much more to exploit their differences.
- Pressure the Congolese government to prosecute the worst offenders.
