{"id":2000102808,"date":"2026-02-22T15:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T13:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/?p=2000102808"},"modified":"2026-02-24T11:53:02","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T09:53:02","slug":"minister-nduhungirehe-calls-out-drc-over-contradictions-on-fdlr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/minister-nduhungirehe-calls-out-drc-over-contradictions-on-fdlr\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister Nduhungirehe calls out DRC over contradictions on FDLR"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The minister was responding to Congolese government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya, who had downplayed the threat posed by the militia group formed by the perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi who fled to the DRC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Muyaya had questioned whether members of the FDLR could still pose a threat 32 years later, calling the group an \u201ceternal pretext\u201d in regional tensions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responding in detail, Nduhungirehe rejected that argument outright.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe misleading propaganda of the Congolese government on the issue of the genocidal FDLR nevertheless has its limits,\u201d the minister wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He recalled that on March 21, 2024, during the first ministerial meeting under the Luanda Process, then DRC Foreign Minister Christophe Lutundula had committed to presenting a \u201cplan for the neutralisation of the FDLR.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the final communiqu\u00e9 of that meeting, it was even specified that \u2018consequently\u2019 to the neutralisation of the FDLR, Rwanda would lift its defensive measures,\u201d Nduhungirehe stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, he pointed to what he called a sudden reversal only days later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were surprised to hear, two days later in a press conference in Kinshasa, the same Christophe Lutundula claim that the FDLR did not exist,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The minister also cited a planned 2024 operation by the Congolese armed forces (FARDC), coordinated with the United States and aimed at targeting FDLR positions, describing it as a total failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis military operation was a total failure, for the simple reason that a FARDC general had informed his FDLR friends in advance,\u201d Nduhungirehe stated, adding that the development had angered international partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite that setback, he noted that military and intelligence experts from Rwanda, the DRC and mediator Angola later adopted a Concept of Operations (CONOPS) in Luanda on October 31, 2024, focused on neutralising the FDLR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Nduhungirehe, the CONOPS became a key pillar of subsequent peace understandings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe neutralisation of the FDLR is therefore a central element of the Washington Agreements and for a lasting peace in eastern DRC,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he questioned Kinshasa\u2019s commitment, noting that coordination meetings between FARDC and FDLR commanders took place on the very day the CONOPS was endorsed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis demonstrates the lack of political will in Kinshasa on the FDLR issue,\u201d he argued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Addressing Muyaya\u2019s assertion that the group\u2019s age diminishes its relevance, Nduhungirehe dismissed the reasoning as flawed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis eternal argument about the age of FDLR members is one of the most absurd and ridiculous there is,\u201d he said, adding that the group \u201cregularly recruits new members on the basis of its genocidal ideology.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Muyaya had claimed that the real drivers of instability in eastern DRC are natural resources, including gold and coltan, rather than the FDLR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this month, President Paul Kagame dismissed claims that Rwanda was targeting DRC minerals, insisting that the country\u2019s concerns were primarily about security and the FDLR\u2019s genocidal ideology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we were in Congo for minerals, we would be a hundred times richer than we are now [\u2026] the threats coming from Congo related to our security have materialised several times. You just don\u2019t want to see it, you don\u2019t want to hear it,\u201d he stated during the 20th edition of Umushyikirano, Rwanda\u2019s National Dialogue Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Minister Nduhungirehe slammed Patrick Muyaya over the DRC government\u2019s repeated contradictions on the FDLR.<\/strong>
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rwanda\u2019s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Olivier Nduhungirehe, has sharply criticised the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) over persistent contradictions in its position regarding the FDLR militia group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000102809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[151,72],"byline":[192],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-2000102808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-editors-choice","tag-featured-news-home","byline-wycliffe-nyamasege"],"bylines":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","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":131}],"contributors":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","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":131}],"featured_image":{"id":2000102809,"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/nduhu-8-17a46-4-98b06.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":1000,"height":1000,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/nduhu-8-17a46-4-98b06.jpg","width":150,"height":150},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/nduhu-8-17a46-4-98b06.jpg","width":300,"height":300},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/nduhu-8-17a46-4-98b06.jpg","width":768,"height":768},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/nduhu-8-17a46-4-98b06.jpg","width":1000,"height":1000},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/nduhu-8-17a46-4-98b06.jpg","width":1000,"height":1000}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000102808","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\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2000102808"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000102808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2000102811,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000102808\/revisions\/2000102811"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000102809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2000102808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2000102808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2000102808"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=2000102808"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=2000102808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}