Congo’s army has launched a disarmament campaign against the FDLR—a militia tied to the perpetrators of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide—in a potentially decisive move toward implementing last June’s US-brokered peace agreement with Rwanda. Lieutenant General Nduru Jacques Ychaligonza announced that fighters must surrender “willingly or by force,” with a reception site established in Kisangani to receive defectors who will eventually be repatriated to Rwanda. The push comes weeks after US sanctions targeted Rwanda’s defense forces over their backing of the M23 rebel movement, which controls large parts of eastern Congo. It also coincides with a reported pullback by M23 rebels in eastern Congo, offering a tentative glimmer of progress in a region long scarred by cross-border conflict.
Reuters
