SUMMARY
UPCP (Union des patriotes congolais pour la paix, Union of Congolese Patriots for Peace) was a coalition of Mayi Mayi and FARDC deserter networks active mainly in southern Lubero territory, North Kivu. The group was formally established after a meeting held around 14 April 2012 in Mashuta by “General” Kakule Vasaka Sikulikyolo Lafontaine, also known as Kakule Sikuli “Lafontaine”, and Colonel Albert Kahasha, also known as Foka Mike. In some sources the group was also referred to as UPCP/FPC due to the name of the armed group Forces populaires congolaises. Its core was Lafontaine’s older Nande Mayi Mayi network, previously known as Mayi Mayi Lafontaine, Forces d’autodéfense populaire (FAP), and PARECO-Lafontaine.
UPCP’s objectives shifted over time. Lafontaine’s older network had roots in Nande local self-defence, Mayi Mayi mobilization, and control over territory and gold-producing areas in southern Lubero. In 2012, UPCP adopted a more openly anti-FARDC and anti-government stance. On 7 May 2012, Lafontaine publicly declared on Radio Liberté in Butembo that he would fight FARDC “to the end” and “liberate the whole territory”. This anti-FARDC position coincided with UPCP’s short-lived alliance with M23 and its attempt to build wider armed coordination in North Kivu. The group’s rhetoric often drew on anti-Rwandan and patriotic themes, but its actual alliances were highly opportunistic, including cooperation with M23, FDLR, and RUD-Urunana at different moments.
The group operated mainly in southern Lubero, especially around Bunyatenge, Pitakongo, and the surrounding gold-rich hills. Lafontaine’s units had long controlled or influenced this area, drawing revenue and power from gold mining, local taxation, and protection rackets. Bunyatenge was a key base, and Lafontaine’s network was closely tied to local gold economies. In 2012, UPCP also had positions in southern Lubero and Rutshuru territory, reflecting its short-lived cooperation with M23. Kahasha’s part of the network had a stronger connection to Walungu and South Kivu, where he later continued anti-government activity through Dynamique populaire pour le changement (DPC), which evolved into the Union des forces révolutionnaires du Congo (UFRC).
UPCP’s constituency and recruitment base were primarily Nande. Lafontaine’s network traced its lineage to Nande Mayi Mayi mobilization in southern Lubero from the early 1990s and later to PARECO’s Nande wing. The immediate UPCP coalition also included FARDC deserters around Colonel Kahasha, as well as links to RUD-Urunana and other local armed groups present at the Mashuta meeting. Its strength varied by period and source. Some reports described a small core of around 50 elements, while others suggested several hundred combatants. The group was influential less because of large numbers than because of Lafontaine’s long-standing networks, control over gold-producing areas, and ability to mediate or manipulate alliances among FDLR, RUD-Urunana, Mayi Mayi Mazembe, NDC-R, and other Lubero armed groups.
Organizationally, UPCP was less a centralized rebel army than a coalition around Lafontaine’s long-standing Mayi Mayi network and Kahasha’s FARDC deserters. Lafontaine remained the central political-military broker, while Kahasha was particularly important in the 2012 anti-FARDC and M23-linked phase. The group had an armed label called FPC, but the name functioned more as a parallel designation for the group than as a clearly distinct separate armed wing.
Militarily, UPCP had enough capacity in 2012 to attack FARDC bases in Lubero and seize weapons and ammunition. At the end of April 2012, after FARDC had redeployed units from Lubero to confront mutineers in Masisi, Lafontaine and Kahasha carried out a series of attacks on FARDC bases in Lubero. The group also conducted joint attacks with RUD-Urunana in Lubero and benefited from long-standing cohabitation with FDLR and RUD-Urunana along Lubero’s gold-producing areas. Its material base came from gold mining, taxation, protection arrangements, and local armed networks.
The main leader was Kakule Vasaka Sikulikyolo Lafontaine, one of the longest-standing armed entrepreneurs in the Lubero area. He began his rebel career around 1993 in early Nande Mayi Mayi groups, was absorbed into AFDL in 1996, emerged around 2000 as leader of a local Mayi Mayi group, and developed a long-running intermittent collaboration with FDLR. He integrated into the national army in 2002, defected again several years later, joined PARECO between 2005 and 2008, and later created UPCP. Colonel Albert Kahasha, alias Foka Mike, was the other central figure in UPCP’s 2012 formation. He had been a commander in Mudundu 40 during the 1998-2003 war. He was integrated into FARDC but deserted on 24 January 2012 with around 30 men from the 808th regiment in Oicha. In April 2012, he aligned with Lafontaine in Lubero and they formed UPCP. Kahasha attempted to surrender and integrate into FARDC in late 2012, but the process failed. He then resumed armed activity and shifted toward opening a South Kivu front through DPC, which later evolved into the M23-linked UFRC coalition.
Historically, UPCP was part of the wider cycle of armed mobilization and demobilization in southern Lubero. Lafontaine’s network grew out of earlier Nande Mayi Mayi self-defence, became linked to government-aligned anti-Ugandan and anti-Rwandan mobilization during the Second Congo War, and later passed through FARDC, PARECO, and post-PARECO remobilization. Its long-standing relationship with FDLR and control of gold-producing areas made it influential but also controversial among Nande leaders and communities, particularly as FDLR abuses and later anti-FDLR mobilization reshaped politics in Lubero.
UPCP’s alliances were highly opportunistic. Lafontaine’s network cohabited and collaborated with FDLR and RUD-Urunana between 2012 and 2014, especially around Bunyatenge and the gold-producing areas of southern Lubero. In 2012, Lafontaine and Kahasha entered a tactical alliance with M23 and travelled to M23 bases in Rutshuru to coordinate operations, claiming that the groups had the same enemies. UPCP also overlapped with URDC networks around Hilaire Kombi, who initially appears to have been subordinate to Lafontaine but later acquired greater operational influence over militias in Beni and Lubero. After UPCP’s collapse, several former Lafontaine lieutenants and combatants resurfaced in Mayi Mayi Mazembe, FPP-AP, and other Nande armed groups.
The group benefited from local Nande networks, support from political and religious figures in Butembo, and economic influence derived from control over gold areas around Bunyatenge and Pitakongo. It also benefited from temporary external or cross-group alliances with FDLR, RUD-Urunana, and M23. However, this support was unstable. Lafontaine’s former alliance with FDLR, his short-lived 2012-2013 flirtation with M23, and disputes over gold mines eroded support among many Nande political and military elites.
UPCP declined sharply after 2014 and collapsed as a coherent armed group around 2015-2016. FARDC operations against FDLR, the arrival of NDC-R, and the emergence of Nande-led Mayi Mayi Mazembe militias undermined the old Lafontaine-FDLR order. Some of Lafontaine’s lieutenants defected and later resurfaced as key Mazembe leaders. UPCP then disintegrated further, with its combatants joining different armed groups in Beni and Lubero, while the few remaining UPCP units were pushed out by NDC-R. Lafontaine later went into exile, returned to Lubero in early 2018, surrendered to the government in May 2020, and died in October 2024.
