Congolese forces have killed the leader of an offshoot of a Hutu militia and four of his bodyguards in a security operation in the restive east of the country, confirmed the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) army, two months after killing the leader of the main faction, reported Reuters.
Juvenal Musabimana led a splinter group of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a group founded by Hutu officials. Rwandan Hutu refugees created the FDLR across the border in eastern DRC in the aftermath of the 1994 Tutsi genocide in neighboring Rwanda which left some 800,000 dead according to UN estimates.
The FDLR has been weakened in recent years by arrests of several of its leaders and military pressure from the Democratic Republic of Congo’s armed forces, the FARDC, and other militias.
Guillaume Njike, a Congolese army spokesman, said the army killed the rebel leader of the FDLR on Saturday, November 9, at 2 pm.
Njike added that Musabimana, who was also known by his nom de guerre Jean-Michel Africa, was killed alongside four of his bodyguards following an intense firefight in Binza, North Kivu, near the Ugandan border.
Musabimana is the second big FDLR leader to be killed in the last few months in DRC. The Congolese forces killed the leader of the main branch of the FDLR, Sylvestre Mudacumura, in September in a planned raid by Rwandan Special Forces and DRC soldiers.
Mudacumura had been the subject of an international arrest warrant since 2012. Last month, five FDLR rebels were arrested following an attack in northern Rwanda that left five dead.
The FDLR has also been a source of friction between Rwanda and Uganda in the last year. In March, the Rwandan government accused the Ugandan government of supporting the FDLR and another DRC-based rebel group. Uganda denied the allegations.
