FDLR and anti-Tutsi ideology: testimonies from four former officers

Musanze, Rwanda – Four former senior officers of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), who defected, returned to Rwanda and went through rehabilitation at the Mutobo demobilization center, say the organization was built on an ideology that treats Tutsi as the enemy. They say they were taught to hate Tutsi long before the 1994 genocide.

"In our history and ideology, Tutsi were likened to a 'snake'," said former FDLR Major General Anastase Munyaneza. "The meaning was that if a snake bites you, it injects venom and you die. So it is better to kill the snake before it bites you."

According to the former officers, these ideas were reinforced through Rwanda's political and military institutions before 1994, and survived among those who fled to Zaire – now DR Congo – after the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) took control of Rwanda in July 1994.

More than three decades later, the FDLR remains a source of regional security concern, and its presence in eastern DR Congo is a major point of contention between Kigali and Kinshasa.

Origins of the ideology

The roots of the anti-Tutsi ideology described by the former officers stretch back decades, as ethnic identity became increasingly politicized and institutionalized in Rwanda.

In November 1959, a Hutu uprising helped overthrow Rwanda's monarchy. The period also saw violent attacks on Tutsi, with hundreds killed and thousands forced into exile in neighboring countries.

Before the colonial era, Hutu and Tutsi identities were shaped by social, political and economic relationships. Under Belgian rule, those differences were increasingly institutionalized. In the early 1930s, the colonial administration introduced mandatory identity cards classifying Rwandans as Hutu, Tutsi or Twa, deepening the distinctions.

By the time Rwanda gained independence in 1962, about 120,000 people, mostly Tutsi, had left the country. Exiles in Tanzania and Zaire who sought to return launched attacks between 1962 and 1967. According to the United Nations, each episode was followed by reprisal massacres of Tutsi civilians in Rwanda, triggering further waves of refugees.

By the late 1980s, about 480,000 Rwandans were refugees. President Juvenal Habyarimana argued that population pressure and limited economic opportunity made it difficult to accept the return of large numbers of Tutsi refugees.

In 1988, exiles in Uganda formed the RPF to secure their repatriation, according to the United Nations.

Lieutenant Colonel Idrissa Bizimana said exiles who launched attacks against Rwanda were labeled "Inyenzi", meaning cockroach.

"When the RPF attacked in 1990, we were told that those Inyenzi had attacked the country. We grew up being taught to hate them," he said.

Bizimana said that at school they were taught that Tutsi came from Ethiopia and had "ruled with hatred for 400 years".

The former officers say these narratives were carried into the military, shaping how soldiers viewed Tutsi and their place in Rwandan society.

Major General Munyaneza said Tutsi were rarely present in the army because they were not welcome.

"In the army, we were taught that Tutsi were the enemy," he said.

He recounted that soldiers had to seek permission to marry and present their fiancées for approval. If the woman was Tutsi, the request was rejected. The stated reason was that the wife's family might visit their daughter in the barracks, potentially gaining access to sensitive military information and "passing it to the enemy".

What did the army do in 1994?

According to the former officers, the ideology in the military was put into practice during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.

Munyaneza said soldiers trained members of the Interahamwe militia, including people who had retired, deserted or been dismissed from the army.

According to the UN tribunal for Rwanda, the Interahamwe, the youth militia of the then-ruling National Republican Movement for Development (MRND) party, took part in massacres alongside the Presidential Guard and the army.

Bizimana said members of his battalion hated Tutsi and took part in killings.

"During the genocide against the Tutsi, the battalion was actively involved in the genocide in the area where it was deployed," he said.

The killings began after the plane carrying Rwandan President Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down over Kigali on April 6, 1994. The incident sparked about 100 days of systematic massacres, according to the United Nations.

Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM) broadcast messages inciting violence against Tutsi, including calls to exterminate those it called "cockroaches".

How did the FDLR take root in Congo?

When the RPF took control of Rwanda in July 1994, ending the genocide, former government officials, soldiers and militia members who had taken part in the killings fled to Zaire.

In eastern Zaire, the UN refugee agency reported that former members of the Rwandan Armed Forces (ex-FAR) effectively took control of refugee camps, particularly around Goma.

"That is where we restarted military activities," Munyaneza said.

Former soldiers and militia members continued to organize militarily in exile. Their later activities and alliances laid the groundwork for the armed movement that became the FDLR.

Munyaneza said an alliance decided to emerge in 1998, when Congolese President Laurent-Desire Kabila fell out with his former Rwandan allies. At the time, former Rwandan soldiers and militia members were fighting under the name Rwandan Liberation Army (ALiR). They reorganized as the FDLR in 2000.

"Kabila asked us to defeat the Tutsi who had attacked him, promising in return to help us defeat the Tutsi-led government in Rwanda," Munyaneza said.

What is the FDLR?

Munyaneza said the FDLR was officially founded in May 2000 by former Rwandan military commanders and politicians. It is the latest name for armed groups that had operated in exile since 1995.

"The name changes, but the same people are involved," he said.

He said the group's aim was to "overthrow the Tutsi-led government that defeated us", referring to the post-genocide Rwandan government.

The FDLR's founding after the genocide has been central to the group leadership's efforts to distance the organization from the forces that carried out the killings.

In an April 2005 interview with IRIN, the UN news agency, then-FDLR president Ignace Murwanashyaka denied that the entire organization took part in the genocide. "The FDLR is a very new movement, appearing six years after the genocide," he said. Murwanashyaka did not rule out that individual members were involved. "If one of us is responsible for this crime, you have certainly heard the accusations, but no one can say that the entire organization carried out genocide," he said.

The group's leaders have also faced legal action over atrocities in eastern DR Congo. On July 13, 2012, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for FDLR military commander Sylvestre Mudacumura on nine counts of alleged war crimes in eastern DR Congo between 2009 and 2010. In September 2015, a German court convicted Murwanashyaka and his deputy Straton Musoni of leading a foreign "terrorist" organization and of aiding war crimes in eastern DR Congo.

Who arms and funds the FDLR?

According to the former officers, the FDLR relies on a mix of external support and revenue from activities in eastern DR Congo.

Munyaneza said the group received financial and logistical support from the Congolese government. "To this day, the FDLR maintains close relations with the Congolese government," he said.

Augustin Nshimiyimana, a former FDLR colonel who served as a brigade intelligence officer and later headed external intelligence, described close operational ties between the FDLR, the Congolese Armed Forces (FARDC) and Wazalendo groups, an umbrella term for local armed groups in eastern DR Congo.

"The FARDC, Wazalendo and FDLR live together, fight together, hold positions together and receive the same uniforms," he said.

According to Munyaneza, the FDLR also raises funds through its own activities, including checkpoints, taxes on miners and mine owners, cannabis, timber, charcoal and ivory.

These alleged funding networks help explain how the FDLR has sustained itself through decades of exile. Access to local resources and ties to other armed groups also raise concerns about links between armed groups and the exploitation of natural resources in eastern DR Congo.

In July 2026, the UN Security Council sanctions committee added FDLR leader Brigadier General Sebastien Uwimbabazi and commander Gustave Kubwayo to its list. The decisions cited activities undermining peace and security in DR Congo, as well as Kubwayo's role in targeting civilians, kidnapping for ransom and illegal exploitation of natural resources.

Does the ideology survive?

Efforts to address the FDLR have become central to diplomatic efforts to reduce tensions between Rwanda and DR Congo.

In February 2025, the UN Security Council called on the Congolese army to stop supporting armed groups, particularly the FDLR. Under the US-mediated Washington Accord signed in 2025, Kinshasa committed to neutralizing the FDLR, while Rwanda committed to removing its defensive measures.

In July 2026, the Congolese government announced that a faction of the FDLR had signed a protocol on disarmament, demobilization and cantonment. Rwanda rejected the deal, accusing Kinshasa of seeking to evade its obligations under the Washington Accord to neutralize the group. The agreement marked a new development in efforts to address the FDLR's presence in eastern DR Congo, but implementation and whether it leads to disarmament remain major questions.

Munyaneza said the FDLR continues to deny the genocide against the Tutsi. He argued that while the group's official political narrative is built around removing those it calls foreign Tutsi, its real intent is different.

Emilien Mpakaniye, a former FDLR lieutenant colonel who handled financial aid at the group's headquarters in eastern DR Congo in 2008, said the FDLR also spreads its ideology to Congolese armed groups it trains or allies with, describing the organization as "a coordinator of armed groups in eastern DR Congo".

The former officers' accounts show the ideology has survived beyond the presence of gunmen. They describe a narrative taught in schools, reinforced in the military and carried into exile by the people who later helped found the FDLR. Whether the group can be dismantled is therefore not only a question of disarmament, but also of the survival of an ideology that shaped its founders, the networks that sustain it and its influence on armed groups in eastern DR Congo.

"Officially, the organization does not say it intends to kill Tutsi; its political narrative is about removing those it calls foreign Tutsi," Munyaneza said. "However, among FDLR officers, they know their mission is to kill Tutsi."