National Congress for the Defence of the People

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Flag of CNDP

The National Congress for the Defence of the People (

military of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In January 2009, the CNDP split and Nkunda was arrested by the Rwanda government. The remaining CNDP splinter faction, led by Bosco Ntaganda
, was planned to be integrated into the national army.

History

A soldier of the CNDP in 2008 (with an anti-rape badge on his beret).

General

general elections, when Nkunda engaged in negotiations with Major General John Numbi, at that time head of the Congolese air force, he declared the group he led to be the National Congress for the Defence of the People on 30 December 2006.[2][3] Nkunda benefited greatly from mixage; before 2007, he had two brigades while mixage created five mixed brigades. While numbers are disputed, Nkunda's two original brigades (the 81st and the 83rd) numbered about 2,200 men but by May 2007 some 8,000 to 8,500 men considered themselves under his command.[2] This expansion was at least partially accomplished because Nkunda began incorporating all manner of men with unclear backgrounds into the brigades under his control, including former Rwandan soldiers, members of former militias who had been demobilized and had no skills outside of war, and others simply attracted to his populist Tutsi rhetoric.[2][4]

Prior to mixage, Nkunda's troops controlled a swathe of

Sake, Kirolirwe and Kitchanga (Nkunda's homeland) and then further north and west. With his new mixage battalions, Nkunda was able to control large areas of Masisi and Rutshuru and expand north and east toward the border with Uganda. Newly formed national brigades were ordered to establish territorial control, which Nkunda took to mean fighting the Hutu Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) descended from the groups that carried out the Rwandan genocide.[2] In late March 2007, Numbi left Goma in what the International Crisis Group sees as an attempt to distance himself from a disaster in the making, as accusations mounted that the CNDP was in effect setting up a small kingdom in Masisi.[5] In late April, the military stopped the creation of the sixth brigade scheduled to be under Nkunda. The mixed brigades carried out offensives against the FDLR from mid-April to mid-May but, despite the claims of the CNDP, did poorly as they had little logistical support and the FDLR fought well.[6] The military demanded that the CNDP soldiers undergo brassage, mixage having failed, and three months of standoff ensued as relations between soldiers loyal to Nkunda and loyalist troops grew increasingly tense. Matters reached a breaking point when the army chief of staff declared that the offensive against the FDLR would be halted.[7] After an international outcry, he reversed himself but stated that only units that had undergone brassage would be allowed to fight, apparently in the belief that the all-Tutsi CNDP units were more likely to be indiscriminately violent towards the mostly Hutu population of the FDLR heartland. On 28 August 2007, soldiers loyal to Nkunda ambushed pro-Kinshasa soldiers of the Bravo brigade in Rubare. Within days the CNDP-government violence had vastly escalated and the government was carrying out full-scale offensives against the CNDP by 6 September.[8]

Kiwandja massacre

The CNDP under the command of Col. Sultani Makenga was accused of massacring 67 civilians in 2008 in the town of

UN Human Rights Commission, Navi Pillay, accused Makenga of committing war crimes. [9]

Splintering of the CNDP

In early January 2009,

child soldiers in its ranks.[13]

On March 23, 2009, the CNDP signed a peace treaty with the government, in which it agreed to become a political party in exchange for the release of its imprisoned members.[14]

The armed confrontation resumed three years later, in the

2012 East D.R. Congo conflict
.

Footnotes

  1. ^ Prunier, p. 297-298, 322-323.
  2. ^ a b c d "IV. "Mixage"-An Attempted Solution Fails" in Renewed Crisis in North Kivu, Human Rights Watch, 22 October 2007
  3. ^ "Condense du Cahier de Charges du Congrès national pour la défense du peuple" Archived 2011-07-25 at the Wayback Machine, cndp-congo.org, 30 December 2006
  4. ^ Prunier, p. 323
  5. ^ See, for example, "For Tutsis of Eastern Congo, Protector, Exploiter or Both?" by Stephanie McCrummen, The Washington Post, August 6, 2007
  6. ^ International Crisis Group, p. 10-11
  7. ^ "Rwanda anger at Congo rebel move", BBC News, 15 August 2007
  8. ^ International Crisis Group, p. 11-13
  9. Independent Online (South Africa)
    , 19 June 2012
  10. ^ a b "Urge the Congolese Authorities to Arrest ICC Suspect Bosco Ntaganda ", Human Rights Watch, 5 February 2009 (accessed 23 February 2009)
  11. ^ "DRC: Civilians at risk from further fighting after Nkunda arrest", IRIN, 26 January 2009 (accessed 23 February 2009)
  12. ^ World Bank, DDR in the DRC Program Update, September 2009, p.4
  13. ^ "DRC: North Kivu operation a boost for repatriation, peace - president", IRIN, 3 February 2009 (accessed 23 February 2009)
  14. ^ "DR Congo government, CNDP rebels 'sign peace deal'", AFP, 24 March 2009

References

  • "Congo: Bringing Peace to North Kivu" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-03-13., International Crisis Group, Africa Report N°133, 31 October 2007
  • ISBN 978-0-19-537420-9
    .
  • ISBN 978-1-78032-345-9
    .
  • Miller, Eric (2010) THE INABILITY OF PEACEKEEPING TO ADDRESS THE SECURITY DILEMMA: A case study of the Rwandan-Congolese Security Dilemma and the United Nation's Mission in the Congo . Lambert Academic Publishing
    ISBN 978-3-8383-4027-2
  • UN Panel of Experts report, December 2008, S/2008/773

External links

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