In the northern Rwandan town of Musanze, four former senior officers of the FDLR have stepped away from a movement that, for more than two decades, has carried a hatred first taught in schools and barracks before 1994 into the forests of eastern Congo. Their testimony places the group's ideology not at its founding but in a long chain of exile, violence and reprisal that began with the 1959 uprising and hardened through the genocide that followed. As the Washington Accords and a fragile disarmament protocol now test whether that chain can be broken, the story asks a harder question than who is
Former FDLR officers describe how anti-Tutsi ideology took root in Rwanda and survived in exile in Congo
The group's ideology is linked to the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, which killed roughly 100 days of systematic mass killings, and its activities in eastern DRC have involved targeting civilians and kidnapping for ransom.
The names changed, but the same people remained involved.
Mark
Why do these four men's accounts matter?
Mimi
They come from inside. They were senior officers, and they describe the ideology as something taught in schools and the army, not invented in exile.
Mark
What do they say the army did with it?
Mimi
Munyaneza says Tutsis were kept out and soldiers couldn't marry Tutsi women. Bizimana says his battalion took part in the genocide where it was deployed.
Luke
Those are their accounts, though. The piece doesn't independently verify them, and these men were rehabilitated at a Rwandan government centre.
Mark
And the funding claims?
Mimi
Munyaneza says Congo's government supports the group and lists mining taxes, charcoal, timber, ivory and cannabis. Nshimiyimana says the FDLR and Congolese army share positions.
Luke
Those are allegations from former members. The UN sanctions cite kidnapping for ransom and illegal resource exploitation, but the claim of Congolese state support rests on these officers here.
Mark
What about the group's own position?
Mimi
In 2005 Murwanashyaka said the FDLR formed six years after the genocide, so the organisation as a whole couldn't be responsible.
Luke
Worth noting that is a 2005 statement. What we don't know is how the July 2026 protocol will play out; Rwanda has already rejected it.
Der Puls
- Four former FDLR officers break their silence, describing hatred drilled into them through schools and the army long before the 1994 genocide.
- Old slurs such as cockroaches and snakes resurface as the language that once justified killing, and the officers say it was never abandoned.
- The group's funding through mining levies, smuggling and alleged Congolese state backing keeps its fighters entrenched in eastern DRC.
- UN sanctions against FDLR leaders in July 2026 and a partial disarmament protocol now race against an ideology that its former members say has survived every name change.
- Rwanda rejects the protocol as a dodge, and whether any fighter truly lays down arms remains unresolved.
In the northern Rwandan town of Musanze, four former senior officers of the FDLR have stepped away from a movement that, for more than two decades, has carried a hatred first taught in schools and barracks before 1994 into the forests of eastern Congo. Their testimony places the group's ideology not at its founding but in a long chain of exile, violence and reprisal that began with the 1959 uprising and hardened through the genocide that followed. As the Washington Accords and a fragile disarmament protocol now test whether that chain can be broken, the story asks a harder question than who is to blame: what becomes of a people's inherited fear once the people who carried it begin to speak against it?
In Musanze, northern Rwanda, four former senior officers of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda sat down with Al Jazeera to describe what they were taught about Tutsis and when. All four defected, returned home and passed through rehabilitation at the Mutobo demobilisation centre. They say the hatred was planted long before the 1994 genocide.
Former major general Anastase Munyaneza recalled being taught that Tutsis were snakes, to be killed first because a snake's bite poisons. Lieutenant Colonel Idrissa Bizimana remembered the older word, cockroaches, used for exiles who attacked Rwanda and then reapplied to the RPF when it invaded in 1990. He was also taught at school that Tutsis came from Ethiopia and had ruled by hatred for 400 years.
The officers say these ideas shaped the army itself. Tutsis were rarely in its ranks, soldiers needed permission to marry, and a Tutsi fiancee meant refusal. Soldiers trained Interahamwe militia members, and Bizimana said his own battalion took part in the genocide where it was deployed.
After the RPF took control in July 1994, those who had carried out the killings fled into Zaire and regrouped around Goma. In 1998, Munyaneza said, Laurent-Desire Kabila turned to them for help against Rwanda, and the FDLR was formally founded in 2000. "The names changed, but the same people remained involved," he said.
Today the group is funded, the officers say, through roadblocks, taxes on miners, and smuggling of cannabis, timber, charcoal and ivory, with alleged Congolese state support. In July 2026 the UN sanctioned FDLR leaders, and Kinshasa announced that a faction had signed a disarmament protocol under the Washington Accords. Rwanda dismissed it as an evasion. Munyaneza says the group still denies the genocide in public, yet among its officers, "they know that their mission is to kill Tutsis." Whether the protocol disarms anyone remains the open question.
In Musanze, in northern Rwanda, four former senior officers of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, the FDLR, sat down with Al Jazeera to describe what they were taught about Tutsis and when. All four defected from the group, returned to Rwanda and went through rehabilitation at the Mutobo demobilisation centre. They say the hatred was instilled long before the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.
Anastase Munyaneza, a former FDLR major general, put it in terms of an animal. Tutsis, he said, were called snakes in the history and ideology he learned, and the logic was that a snake injects poison when it bites, so it is better to kill it first. Lieutenant Colonel Idrissa Bizimana described a different label: exiles who attacked Rwanda were branded Inyenzi, meaning cockroaches. When the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) attacked in 1990, he said, people were told it was the same Inyenzi again. He also recalled being taught at school that Tutsis came from Ethiopia and had ruled through hatred for 400 years.
The history behind this runs back decades. A Hutu uprising in November 1959 helped topple Rwanda's monarchy and was marked by violent attacks on Tutsis, hundreds of killings and the forced exile of thousands. Before colonial rule, Hutu and Tutsi identities were shaped by social, political and economic relationships. Under Belgian rule, they were formalised, and in the early 1930s compulsory identity cards classified Rwandans as Hutu, Tutsi or Twa. By independence in 1962, about 120,000 people, mostly Tutsi, had fled. Exiles in Tanzania and Zaire staged attacks between 1962 and 1967, and according to the United Nations each was followed by reprisal killings of large numbers of Tutsi civilians, producing more refugees. By the end of the 1980s about 480,000 Rwandans were refugees. President Juvenal Habyarimana argued that population pressure and scarce opportunity made it hard to take large numbers of returnees. Exiles in Uganda founded the RPF in 1988 to secure their repatriation.
The officers say the same ideas shaped the army. Munyaneza said Tutsis were rarely found in its ranks because they were not welcome, and that soldiers had to ask permission to marry and present their fiancees for approval. A Tutsi woman meant refusal, the stated reason being that in-laws visiting the barracks might gain sensitive information and pass it to the enemy. He said soldiers also trained members of the Interahamwe militia, which included men who had retired from, deserted or been dismissed from the army. According to the UN tribunal for Rwanda, the Interahamwe, youth wing of the ruling MRND party, took part in the massacres alongside the Presidential Guard and the army. Bizimana said his own battalion was actively involved in the genocide in the area where it was deployed.
The killings began after a plane carrying Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down over Kigali on April 6, 1994, and lasted about 100 days, according to the UN. Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines broadcast incitement, including calls to eliminate "cockroaches". When the RPF took control in July 1994, officials, soldiers and militiamen who had taken part fled into Zaire. The UN refugee agency reported that former Rwandan army members effectively controlled camps around Goma. "That was where we resumed our military activities," Munyaneza said.
In 1998, he said, Congolese President Laurent-Desire Kabila fell out with Rwanda and turned to the exiles, asking them to defeat the Tutsis who had attacked him and promising help against Rwanda's government in return. The fighters, then operating as the Army for the Liberation of Rwanda, reorganised, and the FDLR was formally established in May 2000. "The names changed, but the same people remained involved," Munyaneza said. Its aim, he said, was to overthrow the Tutsi-led government. In 2005, then-president Ignace Murwanashyaka told IRIN the FDLR appeared six years after the genocide and that no one could say the whole organisation committed genocide, though he did not rule out individual members' guilt. The International Criminal Court issued a warrant on July 13, 2012 for commander Sylvestre Mudacumura on nine war crimes counts in eastern DRC for 2009 and 2010. In September 2015 a German court convicted Murwanashyaka and deputy Straton Musoni of leading a foreign terrorist organisation and aiding war crimes.
On funding, Munyaneza said the group gets financial and logistical support from the Congolese government. Former colonel Augustin Nshimiyimana said the Congolese army, Wazalendo groups and the FDLR fight together, share positions and receive the same uniforms. Munyaneza also listed roadblocks, taxes on miners and mine owners, cannabis, timber, charcoal and ivory as revenue. In July 2026 the UN Security Council sanctions committee listed FDLR leader Brigadier General Sebastien Uwimbabazi and commander Gustave Kubwayo, citing undermining of peace and, in Kubwayo's case, targeting civilians, kidnapping for ransom and illegal exploitation of resources.
The diplomacy now turns on the group. The UN Security Council in February 2025 urged the Congolese army to stop supporting armed groups, especially the FDLR. Under the US-brokered Washington Accords of 2025, Kinshasa pledged to neutralise it and Rwanda to lift its defensive measures. In July 2026 Kinshasa said an FDLR faction had signed a disarmament, demobilisation and cantonment protocol; Rwanda rejected it as an attempt to dodge obligations. Munyaneza said the group still denies the genocide, and that officially it speaks of removing foreign Tutsi, but among officers "they know that their mission is to kill Tutsis." Emilien Mpakaniye, a former lieutenant colonel, said the FDLR passed its ideology to Congolese groups it trained or allied with. Whether the protocol disarms anyone remains the open question.
Bemerkenswerte Zitate
In our history and ideology, Tutsis are referred to as 'snakes.'— Anastase Munyaneza, former FDLR major general
The FARDC, Wazalendo and FDLR live together, fight together, occupy the same positions and receive the same uniforms.— Augustin Nshimiyimana, former FDLR colonel
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