SUMMARY
Raïa Mutomboki (Angry villagers) also known as Maï Maï Raïa and Force Ntakulengwe was founded in 2005 in Wakabango village, Shabunda Territory of the Sud Kivu Province, DR Congo (Zaire) as a self-defense militia. The trigger to form a militia was a massacre of 12 civilians by the FDLR in March 2005 in the jungle village of Kyoka, in Wakabango I southern Shabunda. The group consisted of local Rega youths and former Mayi Mayi who had been part of Padiri's Mayi Mayi group. From 2005-2008 the group remained in the village and was fairly unnoticed even though it was known locally to have very strong dawa. When Raïa Mutomboki succeeded in ousting FDLR from their territory the movement spread to neighboring areas affected by FDLR violence. Youths from other villages adopted the name and inherited the dawa.
In 2008 Raïa Mutomboki was part of the Goma Conference. The conference was supposed to launch an inclusive peace process, embracing 22 different armed groups, and lead to the dismantling of the different militias in the Kivus. The conference lead to a peace deal signed by among others Raïa Mutomboki, but it did not lead to peace.
In January 2010 a new massacre by the FDLR mobilized one of Raïa Mutomboki’s offshoots. The FDLR killed 36 people in Nduma along the edges of the Kahuzi-Biega National Park in northern Shabunda. The Congolese army did not help the angry villagers and in a meeting in the town hall in response to the security problems in the area in July 2011, the Sud Kivu governor reportedly said: “Liberate yourselves”. In response the Raïa Mutomboki movement grew and spread across the Kivu region encompassing more ethnic communities. In early 2013, Raia Mutomboki included four different off-shoots with different characteristics: in southern Shabunda, northern Shabunda/Bunyakiri/southern Walikale, north-eastern Shabunda, and south-eastern Walikale/southern Masisi. The movement is known to have a strong support from the local population. Since the group is very open and members can come and go as they please it is hard to say anything about numbers. The Raïa Mutomboki milita was mobilized in a village in response to a threat and when the threat was gone a mobilized militia was not necessary any longer and therefore abandoned.
Raïa Mutomboki has no clear leadership or chains of command. The group was however first formed by Jean Musumbu from the BaTali clan of Rega community. Musumbu was the first to make the dawa and is still seen as the spiritual godfather of all Raïa. The group is often well connected with the local leadership in the villages were they form. Other important figures within the movement have been Eyadema Mugugu who mobilized the group in Nduma in 2008 and was the leader of the northern Shabunda/Bunyakiri/southern Walikale off-shoot. Eyadema was arrested by the FARDC in June 2012. In north-eastern Shabunda there are different small groups, led by among others, General Sisawa Kindo and Daniel Meshe, Major Ngandu Lundimu and Major Donat Kengwa, Makombo and Natalis and Maheshe. In south-eastern Walikale/southern Masisi Raïa Mutomboki was allied to Mayi Mayi Kifuafua and their leadership was mixed in 2012. The group was led by Col. Delphin Mbaenda. After its first years 2011 and 2012 Raïa Mutomboki phenomenon spread rapidly, the different groups of Raïa Mutomboki has been treated as separate by the UCDP.
Raïa Mutomboki has been involved in the non-state and on-sided categories of UCDP organized violence.
