FDLR Tracker

Floribert Anzuluni presented Kinshasa’s deal with the FDLR as a step toward peace. In practice, it amounts to legitimizing a genocidal militia. Since the 30 May agreement, there has been no tangible disarmament. The deal also sits outside the framework of the Washington Accords. Until the FDLR is neutralised with visible proof on the ground, calls to lift Rwanda’s defensive measures put the sequence in the wrong order. #fdlr #Freecongo #Rwanda

Three months after Kinshasa announced its FDLR protocol, Washington convened DRC and Rwandan military planners in Garmisch to draft an Operations Order for neutralising the FDLR. The statement makes no mention of the protocol Minister Anzuluni has been presenting abroad as proof of delivery. Planning a military operation suggests Washington does not see that protocol as a workable path. The Accords require the DRC to neutralise the FDLR, not negotiate the terms of its disarmament.

“FDLR is not just a threat to Rwanda, it’s an existential threat.” South Africa’s High Commissioner to Rwanda, Tinyiko George Hlungwane, affirms Rwanda’s right to defend itself and protect its territorial integrity. 🎥: via @NewTimesRwanda

this 26th-27th September, a new FDLR and Nyatura incursion was reported in Burungu, again targeting Congolese Tutsi. The village was already burned in October 2023. Back in June, the FDLR raided Karenga at night and about ten people were killed, including several Congolese Tutsi. Since January, similar attacks have been reported in Kalehe, Mahanga, Ngungu, Nyiragongo and Rutshuru, with deaths, burned homes and slaughtered cattle. How can displaced Tutsi return when their villages remain exposed? FDLR is not only waging war in eastern DRC but it is also carrying it's true intention, the extermination of tutsi's #FDLR #Rwanda #DRC #Freecongo

Where are the weapons surrendered? Where are the units cantoned? Where is the verified end of FARDC-FDLR operational coordination and support? These are the questions Judith Suminwa’s UN speech leaves unanswered.She presented the 30 May agreement with FDLR and the September repatriation of 120 FDLR-associated people as evidence that Kinshasa is dealing with the problem.But nearly four months after FDLR agreed to lay down its arms, those 120 people include dependants, while FDLR’s fighting force is estimated in the 3 to 4 thousands. More importantly, there is still no independent public evidence that the FARDC-FDLR military relationship documented by UN experts has ended. The latest UN reporting documented FARDC supplying FDLR with military equipment, maintaining liaison officers with its leadership and coordinating operations with its fighters. Previous reporting described FDLR as a key FARDC ally, operating alongside FARDC/Wazalendo and even jointly with FDNB. Signing an agreement is one thing. Dismantling an armed group and ending the military relationship that sustained it is another. Until there is evidence of large-scale disarmament, cantonment and an actual end to FARDC-FDLR cooperation, Kinshasa cannot point to a document and a limited repatriation as proof that the FDLR question has been resolved.

President Ndayishimiye told France 24 that FDLR is a “pretext,” suggesting Kinshasa cannot neutralize it because its forces are largely in AFC/M23-held territory. But the evidence tells a different story. The UN Group of Experts (S/2025/446) documented FDLR fighters operating “jointly with FARDC, VDP/Wazalendo and/or FDNB”, while describing FDLR as a key FARDC ally, strengthened by transfers of FARDC military equipment. Today, the same military architecture remains visible in South Kivu. The latest UN reporting documents FDNB fighting alongside FARDC and Wazalendo on the Uvira–Fizi–Minembwe axis. Meanwhile, on 3 March 2026, the FDLR High Command itself issued a communiqué from Uvira, explicitly reiterating its support for FARDC. The pattern is difficult to ignore: FDLR + FARDC/Wazalendo. FDNB + FARDC/Wazalendo. FDLR + FDNB previously documented operating jointly. Same theatre. Same military adversary: AFC/M23. And when AFC/M23 advanced through longstanding FDLR positions, UN reporting documented FDLR formations being defeated, displaced and retreating toward areas such as Walikale, not becoming allies of the force pursuing them. The relevant question therefore isn't whether scattered FDLR elements can exist behind M23 lines. It is why FDLR and FDNB repeatedly appear within the same government-aligned military architecture, fighting the same enemy, when Burundi says its forces are in Congo to fight foreign armed groups such as FDLR. That contradiction deserves an answer.

Rtd Lt Col Emilien Mpakaniye, who handled resource mobilization inside FDLR, details the group's funding streams: support from the Congolese government, contributions from the Rwandan refugee diaspora worldwide, and illicit mining operations FDLR controls in eastern DRC. His account lays out how the group sustains itself financially despite years of military setbacks. #FDLR #RWANDA #DRC #Easterncongo

Rtd Lt Col Emilien Mpakaniye, known inside FDLR as 'Che Guevara Jacob.' For 12 years, he lived inside the group first as a bodyguard protecting senior FDLR leadership, later as an internal evangelist preaching to fighters, and eventually as the officer handling resource mobilization, meaning he knew exactly how FDLR funded and sustained itself. Born in Karongi, Rwanda, he fled in 1994 in the aftermath of the Genocide against the Tutsi. He spent years embedded in the group before finally returning home through the Mutobo Demobilization and Reintegration Center in 2019. Today, he's one of the clearest firsthand voices explaining how FDLR actually functions not as scattered remnants, but as a structured, self-sustaining organization. #FDLR #RWANDA #DRC #Easterncongo

Col Augustin explains FDLR is no longer just ex-FAR. He himself was never part of ex-FAR — proof the group's recruitment has shifted. He says FDLR recruits by ideology, not by age or prior affiliation, showing how the extremist group sustains itself beyond its original founders. #FDLR #Rwanda #DRC #Easterncongo