SUMMARY

The mainly Nyanga group NDC-R splintered from NDC in July 2014 with an aim of fighting FDLR and to ultimately integrate into the Congolese national army. The group also accused NDC of targeting civilians. In the first years of existence NDC-R mainly fought with the original NDC and FDLR, and there were very few reports of attacks targeting the civilian population. In mid-2016 the group fell out with the former ally Mayi Mayi Mazembe. From 2017 the group increasingly fought CMC Nyatura and their APCLS allies. CMC was a Congolese Hutu Nyatura group with very strong ties to FDLR. NDC-R managed to take control over more and more territory in Nord Kivu, and smaller rebel groups joined the NDC-R forces, they also increasingly targeted the civilian population. The group expanded until July 2020 when NDC-R splint in two. The splinter factions fought each other and NDC-R retreated into its Walikale fiefdoms.

The group mainly targeted civilians perceived as supporters of its enemy armed groups but they also killed civilians refusing to pay tax or after kidnapping them and during looting of villages.

NDC-R first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 2019, when the one-sided violence resulted in more than 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached in late June that year when the group killed 19 civilians in Masisi territory in DR Congo (Zaire).