EDITOR,

The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo, has announced that its forces the FARDC are committed to crushing what is left of the FDLR in eastern part of the country and the Congolese have gone ahead to launch an offensive against the rebel group that has raped, killed, looted and brought unimaginable suffering to the people of the African great lakes region.    

The Congolese army announced last Friday the start of a fresh three-month military offensive dubbed Operation Amani Leo (Operation Peace Today) following the end of the previous UN-backed operation Kimia II.

The government and people of Congo need all the support to uproot this menace to regional stability once and for all.
It’s my wish that all parties in this put all the available resources to use to bring to an end this problem.  

The whereabouts of the top FDLR military leaders is known and they should be hunted to the last member; in Europe, in Africa and everywhere.   

The FDLR are a combination of remnants of the former Rwandan army (ex-Far) and Interahamwe militia who spearheaded the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, they have exported their ideology thus becoming security problem to the region.

Regional powers should also be involved as what happens in DRC affects the region as a whole.   

In the previous two operations the group was significantly neutralized and this operation should finish them off. 

The UN mission in DRC (MONUC), whose mandate was recently extended by the UN Security Council should this time round act appropriately with Congolese army to flush out the rebels.

JP Kalisa
Kigali