{The largest remaining illegal foreign-armed group operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo faces military action unless it demobilizes within three months, the U.S. ambassador to the country said.}<\/p>\n
The Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, known by its French acronym FDLR, is required by the Central African nation\u2019s government to meet a disarmament and repatriation deadline by Jan. 2, 2015. A previous deadline of June 9 was extended by President Joseph Kabila\u2019s administration after only a few hundred fighters complied.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur view is that there has been no voluntary demobilization since June,\u201d James Swan said in an interview in the capital, Kinshasa, on Sept. 26. If the FDLR doesn\u2019t meet the requirements set by the Congolese government, it \u201cwill face military consequences\u201d by United Nations-backed Congolese forces, he said.<\/p>\n
The FDLR, a mainly ethnic-Hutu group that opposes the government in neighboring Rwanda, currently has about 1,800 combatants in Congo. Some of the group\u2019s leaders have outstanding arrest warrants stemming from their alleged involvement in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.<\/p>\n
During the 1990s, the FDLR had as many as 13,000 combatants in Congo, according to the United Nations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not just one FDLR, there are now three factions,\u201d said General Carlos Alberto Dos Santos Cruz, the head of the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, known as Monusco. Two of those factions \u201care not participating in the disarmament process,\u201d he said in an interview in Goma, capital of North Kivu province in eastern Congo.<\/p>\n
Peacekeeping Force<\/p>\n
About 17,000 peacekeepers have helped Kabila\u2019s government repel and contain various rebel movements since 2010. In March 2013, the UN Security Council authorized the deployment of 3,000 UN forces to operate in an offensive capacity in Congo. The Force Intervention Brigade comprises 1,000 soldiers each from Tanzania, Malawi and South Africa.<\/p>\n
Monusco has operations planned in coordination with the government army, known as FARDC, as well as troops on the ground to act if the FDLR doesn\u2019t comply, Dos Santos Cruz said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe military posture will follow the political posture,\u201d he said. \u201cAt this moment, it\u2019s impossible to predict an early strike.\u201d<\/p>\n
About 24 rebel groups operate in eastern Congo, according to the UN. The region is rich in tin ore, gold and coltan, an ore used in smartphones and laptops. In December, Congolese forces, supported by the intervention brigade, defeated a 20-month rebellion by M23. Congo\u2019s government accused Rwanda of backing the group, who, like Rwanda\u2019s government, were mainly led by ethnic Tutsis. Rwanda\u2019s government denied the allegation.<\/p>\n
Last year, the UN proposed using drones to gather intelligence on rebel groups in Congo, a plan that Rwandan officials initially denounced as \u201cbelligerent.\u201d Rwandan President Paul Kagame later issued a statement saying the use of drones should be allowed.<\/p>\n
There are currently three drones operating in eastern Congo under UN oversight.<\/p>\n
African nations involved in the FDLR disarmament process will make the final decision regarding military action against the group, after an October meeting with regional officials involved in the Congolese peace-building process.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll operations will be coordinated with the FARDC and under their leadership,\u201d said Ray Torres, Monusco\u2019s head of office in North Kivu. \u201cIf the FDLR decides to engage, we will support with all our capacity. Moreover if the FDLR carries out any offensive operation, we will respond.\u201d<\/p>\n
{{To contact the reporter on this story: Malcolm Beith in Kinshasa at mbeith2@bloomberg.net}}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{The largest remaining illegal foreign-armed group operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo faces military action unless it demobilizes within three months, the U.S. ambassador to the country said.} The Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, known by its French acronym FDLR, is required by the Central African nation\u2019s government to meet a disarmament […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000054253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-16608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000054253,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16608.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16608.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16608.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16608.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16608.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16608.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000054253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16608"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=16608"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=16608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}