Tshisekedi's FDLR demilitarisation plan: a smokescreen and a diversion

The so-called disarmament plan unveiled by Kinshasa rests on a protocol signed on 7 July 2026 between the Congolese government, represented by Regional Integration Minister Floribert Anzuluni, and a faction of the FDLR led by Victor Biringiro.

The much-vaunted plan provides for the demilitarisation, disarmament and cantonment of some 1,000 FDLR fighters, along with 4,000 members of their families, in secure and habitable sites far from the conflict zones.

Yet, according to several reports, the FDLR – made up of former perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide – have grown stronger thanks to material and financial backing from Kinshasa and from Burundi. Today they are armed and funded by the Congolese public purse, wear the uniform of the Congolese army (FARDC) and have even been absorbed into the Republican Guard, the army's elite unit.

Kinshasa's manipulation of public opinion

With great fanfare, the FARDC launched an operation to hunt down the FDLR in Kisangani on 30 March 2026, at General Bauma camp, under the command of General Jacques Ychaligonza, the army's deputy chief of staff.

In reality, the operation was a charade, designed to lull the international community and to feign compliance with the Washington accords, which obliged the DRC to cut all ties with the FDLR and to eradicate the group.

Meanwhile, and to this day, evidence on the ground shows Kinshasa stepping up its support for, and cooperation with, the FDLR, a group with which it shares an anti-Tutsi ideology. These so-called demilitarisation plans are, in truth, a shameless piece of hypocrisy meant to hoodwink the gullible.

The FDLR operate under the FARDC banner and fill the gaps in the Congolese army's ranks. The only thing that will put an end to the menace posed by these génocidaires is either genuine international pressure on Kinshasa or military pressure from actors other than Kinshasa's army.