In a new twist of events the Congolese Army has allegedly renewed its cooperation with the FDLR rebels based in Eastern DRC aimed at launching terror attacks on Rwanda soil.
The Rwandan government on Thursday accused Kinshasa of renewing cooperation with the genocidal forces.
An official in the Rwanda President’s office Yolande Makolo was quoted saying, “Two FDLR political cadres, travelling on Belgian passports, are currently in Rutshuru in North Kivu to meet the FDLR command and convince them to resume cooperation with the Congolese army.”
The men have been identified as Faustin Murego and Joseph Nzabonimpa, both residents in Belgium.
Also their passport numbers on which they are travelling have been revealed.
The two men are said to have flown into the Ugandan capital, Kampala aboard Egypt Air flight and then made their way to the North Kivu Provincial capital Goma, with the help of DRC intelligence agents.
Makolo explained that an official in DR Congo’s North Kivu province, where the commander of the Rwandan Hutu rebel group Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) is based, is tasked with persuading the FDLR to resume cooperation with the DRC army and to “plan terror attacks on Rwanda.”
The DRC government has in the past weeks accused Rwanda of backing a mutiny in the east of the DR Congo.
About Faustin Murego and Joseph Nzabonimpa
Murego was a lieutenant in the former Rwandan army and now lives in the Belgian city of Liege, Makolo said.
Nzabonimpa was also an officer in the former Rwandan army and now lives in Brussels, where he works in IT, she said.
Still according to Makolo, North Kivu Governor Julien Paluku asked the UN mission in DRC to fly the two men to Walikale, a town deep in the forest, so they could meet FDLR commander Sylvestre Mudacumura.
The UN refused and so Mudacumura sent a lower ranking officer Pacifique Ntawunguka to meet them.
“The meeting took place … and they decided to resume cooperation,” Makolo said, adding that the two had given Ntawunguka $100,000 to give to Mudacumura.
Meanwhile, DR Congo on Thursday urged Rwanda to stop fuelling conflict in the east, after a UN report found that Kigali officers had assisted a mutiny there.
“We demand that the Rwandan authorities prevent their officers from continuing to fuel the war in Congo,” government spokesperson Lambert Mende said.
“We ask them to unconditionally dismantle networks, stop recruitment and supplies feeding the nefarious forces in Congo,” the spokesman said at a press conference.
Kigali has vehemently denied accusations it had been helping a mutiny in the eastern DRC by former rebels who had been integrated into the army but defected again this year.
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