The Democratic Republic of Congo army on Thursday said five people were killed in the offensive that eliminated a Rwandan Hutu rebel leader who was wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, reported France24.
The Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) commander, Sylvestre Mudacumura, was killed on Tuesday night in DRC’s North Kivu province, about 60km from the capital of the province Goma.
“The final assessment: five killed, including Mudacumura and his secretary-general, four captured and four weapons recovered,” Colonel Sylvain Ekenge, a deputy military spokesman, told AFP. “The body of the secretary-general and the captured are coming to Goma very soon.”
The Rwandan government welcomed the news, saying it proved DRC President Felix Tshisekedi’s commitment to fighting “negative forces”.
“The death of Sylvestre Mudacumura is good news for peace and security in the region,” Rwandan state minister for regional affairs Olivier Nduhungirehe told AFP. “With his genocide group, the FDLR, he was destabilizing DRC, killing Congolese and Rwandans.”
Rwandan Hutu refugees created FDLR in eastern DRC after the genocide of Tutsis by majority Hutus in Rwanda in 1994. The rebel group includes the remnants of the former Rwandan government forces and Interahamwe militia accused of committing atrocities in the 1994 Genocide. Mudacumura has been the commander of the rebel group since its founding. He left Rwanda and went to Congo along with other FDLR members after Rwandan Patriotic Army led by current President Paul Kagame defeated them.
According to the United Nations, there are around 500 to 600 active FDLR fighters. They are currently living in the mineral-rich eastern Congolese provinces of North and South Kivu and in southern Katanga. The FDLR militant group is regularly accused of committing atrocities against civilians in the zones it controls.
