The changing fortunes of the FDLR

The FDLR are the remnant of the forces that authored and carried out the Rwandan Genocide of 1994. Over a period spanning 15 years ever since they were routed out of Rwanda by the Rwanda Patriotic Front forces, this group has been at the epicentre of the Congolese conflict whereby they were able to forge varied forms of political positions within the contest. The FDLR courtesy of a Franco-phone conspiracy escaped the inexorable RPF onslaught by being given a safe passage into and permanent abode in Zaire now renamed the DR Congo. It escaped the RPF advance complete with its genocidal ideology which it exported whole sale into a country which was on the verge of collapse throwing the fragile polity that was Congo in mid 1990s into total disarray. When it become apparent that the international community was not doing enough to check the activities of the genocidal forces as well as the activities of a wide array of anti-Angolan, anti-Ugandan and other motley collection of rebel forces who were operating in Zaire, a broad coalition was formed to sort out Zaire’s political cancer which was threatening the whole region with instability. The FDLR was in the opposite side of the equilibrium that was shaping out. That was in 1996. Regional suspicions had been consolidated by the capacity of various rebel groups to procure the sponsorship of neighbouring countries through exploiting interstate conflicts. Kabila replaced Mobutu through a regional initiative whose support was based on suspicions that Mobutu was hosting a cocktail of rebel forces opposed to Rwandan, Burundian, Ugandan and Angolan governments. Prominent among these forces was the FDLR. The next phase of the Congolese conflict saw Kabila falling out with his former allies. Another broad coalition emerged which was ganged up against him. In turn, Kabila through rote diplomacy brought in another opposing coalition which in a flash engulfed Congo in what is referred to the world’s deadliest conflict after world war II. In this new Kabila coalition the FDLR was firmly within his ranks as he had sought to rehabilitate the groups that he fought against in the anti-Mobutu coalition. In rapid succession various forms of initiatives were made to end the conflict. Along the way and within the unfolding scenarios the FDLR registered mixed fortunes. After the death of Laurent Kabila in 2001 the younger Kabila, out of the political realities branded the FDLR as an enemy within only to have them brought in as mercenary forces in 2008 in his futile military contest against Nkunda and his eastern insurgency. 2009 has seen FDLR fortunes plummeting after Kabila woke up to the realization that he needed to have a more robust agenda to sort out the crisis in the east. In order to midwife a sustainable peace process in Congo, he agreed to forge a joint military campaign to flush out the FDLR after it became apparent that all diplomatic channels had been exhausted whose main thrust was to repatriate the FDLR group back to Rwanda. This latest move has effectively meant that FDLR’s days are now numbered. Contact: ojiwah@gmail.com