Rwandan rebel leader killed in DR Congo

KIGALI, Rwanda (AA) - The commander of a Rwandan rebel group based in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was killed by the Congolese army, authorities said Wednesday.

Sylvestre Mudacumura, 65, was killed overnight with his closest lieutenants in eastern Congo’s Rutshuru territory, said army spokesman Richard Kasonga.

"The neutralization of Sylvestre Mudacumura is good news for the Congolese army because he was at the head of the radical wing of the FDLR who opposed voluntary repatriation to Rwanda and his neutralization is a strong signal for the other rebels,” Kasonga wrote on Twitter account of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Mudacumula led the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and was wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The court issued an arrest warrant for Mudacumura in 2012 for alleged attacks against civilians, murder, rape and torture in eastern Congo, where the militia group operated since the end of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

Mudacumura was the deputy commander of the Rwandan presidential guard during the genocide.

He fled to Congo along with other senior security officials after being defeated by the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) led by current President Paul Kagame.

While in Congo, the group formed the militia which kept changing names to finally be known as the FDLR and declared war on Rwanda.

About three Rwandan soldiers were killed when suspected FDLR fighters from the DRC attacked Rwanda’s Rubavu border district in 2018, Kagame told a news conference last December.

The DRC’s mineral-rich east is home to a myriad of armed groups, including Rwandan rebels Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda and Uganda’s Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).