{President Jacob Zuma, as head of the Southern African Development Community’s (Sadc) organ on politics, defence and security, has appealed to the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) to comply with a call to surrender their arms.}
The FDLR operates in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The deadline set by the heads of state of Sadc and the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region for the FDLR to disarm voluntarily or face military action, expired on Friday.
A statement from the Presidency on Sunday said that Mr Zuma had taken note of the second wave of disarmament that took place on December 28 in the provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu, during which a further 151 FDLR combatants disarmed voluntarily and 67 weapons were handed over.
This brings the total number of combatants who have disarmed since May to 337 and the number of weapons handed over to 234. This represents about 24% of the FDLR’s estimated number of combatants.
Russell Feingold, US special envoy to the Congo, said any delays in military action would play into the FDLR’s hands and the current abuses of human rights would continue.
The United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operation is known as Monusco and includes a 3,000-member intervention brigade that is empowered to conduct offensive operations against the FDLR and other rebel groups.
The intervention brigade, which has a strong South African contingent, roundly defeated the M23 rebels in eastern DRC in 2013 but has been criticised for failing to act against other rebel groups.
The DRC has struggled to put an end to conflicts in the east which began in the mid-1990s in the aftermath of neighbouring Rwanda’s genocide, in which some Hutu FDLR commanders were accused of being involved.
About one million people were killed between April and June 1994 when Hutu extremists massacred ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
With Bloomberg
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