Put down arms or die, Kabila tells FDLR

Reports from the DRC say that Congolese President Joseph Kabila has warned FDLR militia to either lay down their arms and stop fighting or be fought to the last man. Kabila said this during his just concluded tour of war-torn South Kivu province where he spent nearly a week conducting a security assessment on the entire province. “The president issued a warning to the Rwandan rebels (FDLR) – he particularly told them to lay down their arms or be continuously harassed by the army,” A Congolese journalist quoted the President. Categorized as a terrorist outfit, FDLR is made up of remnants Interahamwe Ex-FAR/ who spearheaded the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi. They have long been entrenched in Eastern DRC, killing, raping and pillaging, despite international efforts to dislodge them. While addressing multitudes of people in Bukavu, President Kabila reportedly emphasized the urgency for their surrender and repatriation back to Rwanda. After touring South Kivu, Kabila on Wednesday proceeded further north to Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, where again, the security concerns were a major focus. The UN envoy to the DRC, Alan Doss, recently announced that operation Kimia II, the joint DRC army-MONUC military operation against rebels will be concluded at the end of this month. Doss told the Security Council that the campaign against the rebels had “largely achieved” the main goal of weakening the rebels. Ends

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Put down arms or die, Kabila tells FDLR