Reports indicate that the DR Congo military this past weekend captured Col Augustin Nshimiyimana, alias Johari Bora Manassé, another top FDLR commander. The Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) comprises remnants of masterminds of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda. They fled to Zaire, present day DR Congo, in 1994 after masterminding the killing of more than one million people. Nshimiyimana was the genocidal militias liaison with several Congolese militia groups in North Kivu Province. The former FDLR spy chief was born in 1967, in the former Karago Commune and Gisenyi Prefecture, current Karago sector and Nyabihu District, respectively. He joined the perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda after their flight into eastern DR Congo, then Zaire, and grew in their ranks. He is a cousin to the former FDLR spokesperson, Ignace Nkaka, alias LaForge Fils Bazeye, who was arrested by Congolese forces in 2018 and later handed over to Rwanda. Nkaka was arrested at the Bunagana border crossing between Uganda and DR Congo along with Lt Col Jean Pierre Nsekanabo, the militias former head of intelligence. In the past two years, hundreds of FDLR fighters were repatriated to Rwanda by Congolese authorities. Pressure from the Congolese army coupled with internal wrangles has seen the FDLR gradually weaken. Last October, one of their commanders, Gen Gabral Secyugu Nsengiyumva, was killed by his own people. In September 2019, the militias longtime commander, ‘Gen’ Sylvestre Mudacumura was shot and killed by Congolese forces, dealing a huge blow to the group.
