SUMMARY
FNI (Front Nationalist et Integrationist, Front for National Integration) was a coalition of different Lendu ethnic militias fighting in the Djugu territory of the Ituri province of DR Congo (Zaire). The militia was established in November 2002 by Lendu intellectuals and traditional chiefs in an attempt to gather and organize Lendu armed groups opposing the rising threat of the ethnic Hema UPC militia (Union des Patriotes Congolais, Union of Congolese Patriots). The Lendu agriculturalists had been fighting the Hema pastoralists since 1999 (see actor description for Lendu for more information). The FNI consisted predominantly of Lendu from the north of Ituri. In November 2002 the Ngiti (Southern Lendu) umbrella party FRPI (Patriotic Force of Resistance in Ituri - the Forces de resistance patriotiques en Ituri) was launched. FRPI was at times seen as the military arm of FNI and the two groups fought together against UPC. The same month FNI was formed as an idea of integrating all (northern) Lendu militias under the same politico-military movement.
In December 2002, FNI together with two other ethnically-based political parties, formed FIPI (Front for Integration and Peace in Ituri, Front pour lintégration et la paix en Ituri). The alliance was formed in order to get Ugandan support to fight UPC. The FIPI coalition collapsed after the UPC was forced from Bunia in March 2003. On 18 March 2003 FNI was part of a ceasefire agreement establishing the Ituri Peace Commission. At that time FNI and FRPI talked about creating a joint military high command for the groups. In 2004 a conflict over leadership stopped the attempt and the FNI and FRPI went separate ways. On 14 May 2004 new negotiations between the different Ituri groups ended in the signing of an acte d’engagement which stipulated the cessation of hostilities and disarmament and community reinsertion. Subsequently FNI officially transformed itself into a national Congolese party in August 2005.
In June 2005 a new coalition MRC (Mouvement révolutionnaire congolais, Revolutionary Movement of Congo) was founded that incorporated former members of some Ituri and Nord Kivu militias not willing to disarm. The coalition included militias representing all Ituri ethnic groups. After 2005 FNI acted both as part of the MRC and independently. The main part of FNI, that remained separate from MRC, was led by Peter Karim.
FNI has been supported by the Ugandan and the Congolese governments as well as the RCD-K-ML. The actors have supplied FNI with weapons and provided training. Uganda has also carried out joint military operations with the FNI.
FNI was based in the Ituri province and had its stronghold around the gold deposits of Mongbwalu. FNI was headquartered in Djugu with bases in Rethy and Kpandroma towns. In 2004, at its height, the group consisted of approximately 27 000 troops. Since the group was an alliance between different Lendu militias the numbers were fluid and other estimates ranged between 3000 and 6000 soldiers. When signing an agreement to disarm in 2006, the group was estimated to consist of only 1300 troops and afterwards they were a small force of a few hundreds.
On 29 November 2006, the government of DR Congo signed an agreement with some Ituri rebel groups including FNI. The agreement was followed by continuing violence but on 7 April 2007 the FNI leader Karim surrendered to the DR Congo government in at Kpandroma. He was promoted to the rank of colonel in the Congolese Army. On 22 August 2007 FNI renewed their agreement to disarm, demobilize and try to reintegrate.
The political leader and instigator of the organization was Floribert Ndjabu Njabu. He was formally elected President of the new movement on 23 December 2002 one day before attending peace negotiations with the Hema counterpart UPC in Arua. Njabu was arrested early March 2005 by Congolese authorities following the killing of 9 Bangladeshi peacekeepers. The group was then led by Peter Udaga, alias Karim. After Karim surrendered in 2007 Major Eric Ngadjole commanded the remaining group. Joseph Désiré Tchura became the chairman of the group after Ngadjole was killed in clashes with the government at the end of 2007. Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui was tried and acquitted for crimes committed by the FNI by International Criminal Court in The Hague. ICC could not prove that Ngudjolo was the highest ranking commander of the FNI at the time of the crimes.
FNI has been involved in the non-state and one-sided categories of UCDP organised violence.
The FRPI (Forces de Résistance Patriotique dIturi, Patriotic Force of Resistance in Ituri) was launched in November 2002. It served as a political umbrella for armed groups belonging to Ngiti population of Ituri, one of the most volatile provinces in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Most of FRPI members came from the villages of Gety, Bogoro and Songolo in the Irumu territorie of the Ituri Province. The Ngiti is a sub-group of the Lendu, and the group is also known as, Lendu-Bindi, Lendu-Sud or Ndruna.
The FRPI had close ties with two other rebel groups: First, the Lendu FNI (Front Nationalist et Integrationist, Front for National Integration) with which it actually formed an alliance in 2003 and worked together to get the UPC (Union des Patriotes Congolais, Union of Congolese Patriotes) Hema militia out of Bunia. Second, the FRPI was closely linked to the RCD-K-ML (Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie-Kisangani-Mouvement de Libération, Congolese Rally for Democracy/Kisangani/Liberation Movement) from which it received weapons and training. Through RCD-K-ML the government of DR Congo also supported the group with weapons 2003-2004. In 2007 FRPI cooperated with the Hema militia PUSIC in the area of Kasenyi. From late 2009 to May 2010 FRPI at times fought the government together with FPJC (Front populaire pour la justice au Congo, Popular Front for Justice in the Congo). In May 2012 FRPI joined a new rebel coalition in Ituri, COGAI (Coalition des Groupes Armés de lIturi). The coalition consisted of four groups: the FRPI; the Front Populaire pour le Développement Durable de lIturi (FPDDI); the Force Armée pour la Révolution (FAR); and the Forces Armées dIntégration de lIturi (FAII).
The FRPI, who reportedly consisted of 9000 combatants in 2003, had decreased to a militia of 3500 fighters before demobilization in 2006. The group has continued to be a small force of some hundred active soldiers that have not yet been integrated into the Congolese army (FARDC). In connection to the M23 rebellion some hundred soldiers defected to join FRPI who then became a force of approximately 500 fighters. The group has continued its activity in the Walendu-Bindi territory, especially in the Bunia-Komanda and Aveba-Gety-Bukiringi areas.
Bernard Kakado is seen as the spiritual father of the FRPI. He set up a forest militia that formed one of the nucleus of FRPI in 2001. Colonel Kandro became the military leader of this forest militia until he was killed in September 2002 by Colonel Cobra Matata one of the future leaders of FRPI. Kakado then appointed Germain Katanga also known as Simba as leader over the group. Germain Katanga, was the leader that organised the group under the name of FRPI. In January 2004, Katanga was integrated into the Congolese army at the rank of general, but in March 2005, Katanga was arrested for an attack against MONUC (Mission de lOrganisation des Nations Unies en République Démocratique du Congo, United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo). He was found guilty by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for four counts of war crimes (murder, attacking a civilian population, destruction of property and pillaging)on 7 March 2014. After Katanga, Justin Wanaloki called "Colonel Cobra Matata" led the group. Under this leadership FRPI signed a disarmament deal with the government of DR Congo on 28 November 2006. Justin Wanaloki was integrated into the armed forces of DR Congo, FARDC, in late 2007 but deserted in early June 2010. In 2007 Mbadhu Adirodhu was appointed colonel leading the group until Cobra Matata’s return in June 2010. Mbadu Adurodu concluded a new peace deal with the government of DR Congo in 2020 under which FRPI ceased to exist as an armed group and committed to respect the process for their transformation into a political party.
The FRPI has been involved in the non-state and one-sided categories of UCDP organised violence.
RCD-K-ML (Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie-Kisangani-Mouvement de Libération, Congolese Rally for Democracy/Kisangani/Liberation Movement) was a rebel faction active in the DR Congo. The group was both part of violence stirred in the north east by the insurgency trying to oust Kabila and the communal violence in the Ituri region.
The group existed in two phases; first RCD-K-ML split from RCD-ML in 2000 when factional fighting in the group broke out. The first phase was short-lived as the group was forced into an Uganda arranged movement called the FLC (Front de Libération du Congo, Front for the Liberation of Congo). Uganda had tried to solve a leadership fight in RCD-ML by merging MLC (Mouvement pour la Libération du Congo, Congolese Liberation Movement) and RCD-ML. The new alliance did not work and Mbusa Nyamwisi assumed leadership of the RCD-ML. The Nyamwisi faction became known as RCD-Kisangani-ML, as the original RCD leader Wamba-dia-Wamba continued to claim legitimacy as leader of the original RCD-ML. MLC and RCD-K-ML made an arrangement were MLC controlled the Equateur region to Bumba in the east and RCD-K-ML the area from Butembo to Isiro. RCD-K-ML was first based in Kisangani until being ousted. The group was then headquarted in Bunia. It later moved its headquarters to Beni.
Prior to the split, in January 2000, Nyamwisi started to recruit his own army of mainly ethnic kinsmen in Ituri – called the Usalama Battalion. Nyamwisi a Nande from Nord Kivu found support amongst his Mukonjo tribesmen in Beni and mainly recruited child soldiers. His group supported the Lendu tribe in the Ituri conflict. Before the national talks in mid-October 2001, Nyamwisi allied himselves with his former enemies in Kinshasa in a bid to become the stronger force in the Ituri region. The government of DR Congo supported RCD-K-ML with military material in the fighting in Ituri.
A peace agreement was concluded by all main actors in the DRC intrastate conflict in 2003. The RCD-K-ML was given 15 seats in the Transitional National Assembly, Nyamwisi was appointed Minister for Regional Cooperation. And the troops were integrated into the Congolese national army (FARDC). Before the national elections were held RCD-K-ML was transformed into a political party and renamed FR (Forces du Renouveau, Forces for Renewal).
RCD-K-ML has been involved in the non-state and one-sided categories of UCDP organised violence.
