The DR Congo government on Monday handed to Rwanda 291 militia fighters from one of the anti-Kigali terror groups who were captured in recent battles with the Congolese army (FARDC) in South Kivu Province, The New Times has learnt. This follows reports by Congolese online publications on Sunday, that 1,951 fighters of the militia group known as the Conseil national pour la renaissance et la démocratie (CNRD) and their dependants were captured in the past few days during an ongoing military offensive in the high plateaus of Kalehe territory, in South Kivu Province. The CNRD is one of the groups that split from FDLR, an offshoot of the forces and militia groups that crossed into DR Congo from Rwanda after killing more than a million people during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, in 2016. The DR Congo army has stepped up an offensive against anti-Kigali terror groups in an ongoing effort to rout all foreign armed militias based there. The 291 CNRD/FLN combatants apprehended in the ongoing operation to dismantle CNRD were repatriated to Rwanda, by Congolese forces, through Rusizi. Sources told The New Times that among these fighters are ‘Colonels’ Joseph Gatabazi, alias Gatos Avemaria, Anthère Ntamuhanga, three ‘Lieutenant Colonels’, three ‘Majors’ in addition to FLN Spokesperson ‘Captain’ Herman Nsengimana. The latter was appointed the terrorist outfit’s mouthpiece earlier this year, after his predecessor, Callixte Nsabimana was apprehended and he is currently in custody and his case is supposed to begin in substance next week. The most senior among those brought home, Gatabazi, alias Gatos Avemaria, who was the militia’s head of military operations, was captured by the Congolese army earlier this month. Most of the Congolese army’s clashes with anti-Rwanda militia are concentrated in the areas of Kalehe territory. This is where the CNRD – part of the larger MRCD-Ubumwe political platform led by, among others, Belgium-based former Rwandan Prime Minister Faustin Twagiramungu, is entrenched. The group is led by former FDLR vice president ‘Lt Gen’ Laurent Ndagijimana, alias, Wilson Irategeka or Rumbago. Its military wing, FLN, is led by ‘Lt Gen’ Habimana Hamada. Reports indicate that FLN has lost all its strongholds in populated areas and forced to run for safety in the dense Kahuzi-Biega National Park, a protected area near Bukavu town in eastern DR Congo. The FLN first raided a Rwandan village near the border with Burundi in June, last year, before another attack in December, when three passenger service vehicles were ambushed inside Nyungwe Forest. According to 7sur7.cd, a Congolese web-based publication, the headquarters and all positions of CNRD in the high plateaus of Kalehe, were destroyed by the Congolese army as the latter pushes on determined to pursue the militias up to their last trenches. Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi has vowed to deal with the problem of insecurity in his country’s restless east where a myriad of militia – local and foreign – have wreaked havoc for decades. In September, the Congolese army killed the former supreme commander of the genocidal militia FDLR Sylvestre Mudacumura, who had evaded capture for over a decade. Early last month, ‘Gen’ Juvénal Musabyimana, alias Jean-Michel Africa, the commander of RUD-Urunana, another splinter group, was killed in another operation in Binza, Rutchuru. In December last year, Congolese security organs arrested FDLR spokesperson Ignace Nkaka, alias LaForge Fils Bazeye, and ‘Lt Col’ Jean-Pierre Nsekanabo, its head of intelligence. The two were returning from Uganda after attending a meeting with another anti-Rwanda group, RNC, led by fugitive Kayumba Nyamwasa. They were later transferred to Kigali where they are now on trial. A UN report of experts released in December, last year, indicated that several anti-Kigali groups, including Nyamwasa’s RNC joined hands and set up a training base in eastern DR Congo. Several RNC fighters, including Captain (rtd) Charles ‘Sibo’ Sibomana, formerly the group’s second in command, were also recently killed. Others such as RNC’s top commander Major (rtd) Habib Mudathiru, were arrested and handed over to Rwanda and are now on trial.
