Division 5 FORCES DEMOCRATIQUES DE LIBERATION DU RWANDA (FDLR)

(alias: a) FDLR, b) Force Combattante Abacunguzi, c) Combatant Force for the Liberation of Rwanda, d) FOCA)

Address: a) North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, b) South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Date of UN designation: 31 December 2012.

Other information: Email: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]. INTERPOL-UN Security Council Special Notice web link: https://www.interpol.int/en/notice/search/une/5278442

Additional information from the narrative summary of reasons for listing provided by the Sanctions Committee:

The FDLR is one of the largest foreign armed groups operating in the territory of the DRC. The group was formed in 2000, and has committed serious violations of international law involving the targeting of women and children in armed conflict, including killing and maiming, sexual violence, and forced displacement. According to a 2010 report from Amnesty International, the FDLR were responsible for the killings of ninety-six civilians in Busurungi, Walikale territory. Some of the victims were burned alive in their homes. According to the same source, in June 2010, an NGO medical centre reported around sixty cases a month of girls and women who had been raped in the southern Lubero territory, North-Kivu by armed groups including the FDLR. According to a December 20, 2010 report from Human Rights Watch (HRW), there has been documented evidence of the FDLR actively conducting child recruitment. HRW identified at least 83 Congolese children under the age of 18, some as young as 14, who had been forcibly recruited by the FDLR. In January 2012, HRW reported that FLDR combatants attacked numerous villages in the Masisi territory, killing six civilians, raping two women, and abducting at least 48 people.

According to a June 2012 report from HRW, in May 2012 FDLR fighters attacked civilians in Kamananga and Lumenje, in South Kivu province, as well as in Chambucha, Walikale territory, and villages in the Ufumandu area of Masisi territory, North Kivu province. In these attacks, FDLR fighters with machetes and knives hacked to death dozens of civilians, including numerous children. According to the June 2012 Group of Experts Report, the FDLR attacked several villages in South Kivu from December 31, 2011 to January 4, 2012. A United Nations investigation confirmed that at least 33 persons, including 9 children and 6 women, had been killed, either burned alive, decapitated or shot during the attack. In addition, one woman and one girl had been raped. The June 2012 Group of Experts Report also states that a United Nations investigation confirmed that the FDLR massacred at least 14 civilians, including 5 women and 5 children in South Kivu in May 2012. According to the November 2012 Group of Experts report, the UN documented at least 106 incidents of sexual violence committed by the FDLR between December 2011 and September 2012. The November 2012 Group of Experts report notes that, according to a UN investigation, the FDLR raped seven women in the night of 10 March 2012, including a minor, in Kalinganya, Kabare territory. The FDLR attacked the village again on 10 April 2012 and raped three of the women for the second time. The November 2012 Group of Experts report also reports 11 killings by the FDLR in Bushibwambombo, Kalehe on 6 April 2012, and FDLR involvement in 19 further killings in Masisi territory, including five minors and six women, in May. The Mouvement Du 23 Mars (M23) is an armed group operating in the DRC that has been the recipient of arms and related materiel, including advice, training, and assistance related to military activities.

Several eyewitness testimonies state that M23 receives general military supplies from the Rwandan Defense Forces (RDF) in the form of weapons and ammunition in addition to materiel support for combat operations. M23 has been complicit in and responsible for committing serious violations of international law involving the targeting of women and children in situations of armed conflict in the DRC including killing and maiming, sexual violence, abduction, and forced displacement. According to numerous reports, investigations, and testimonies from eyewitnesses, M23 has been responsible for carrying out mass killings of civilians, as well as raping women and children throughout various regions of the DRC. Several reports indicate that M23 fighters have carried out 46 rapes against women and girls, the youngest of which was 8 years old. In addition to reports of sexual violence, M23 has also carried out extensive forced recruitment campaigns of children into the ranks of the group. It is estimated that M23 has carried out the forced recruitment of 146 young men and boys in the Rutshuru territory alone in eastern DRC since July 2012. Some of the victims have been as young as 15 years old. The atrocities committed by M23 against the civilian population of the DRC, as well as M23's forced recruitment campaign, and being the recipient of arms and military assistance has dramatically contributed to instability and conflict within the region and in some instances, violated international law.