GLR Observer

A genocidal legacy with a business model: How FDLR survives in eastern DRC ✍Thirty-two years after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, one of its most dangerous legacies remains armed, financed and politically useful in eastern DRC. The FDLR is not merely a group of fugitives hiding in the forest. It is a genocidal organisation formed by the remnants of the evil forces that carried out the 1994 genocide, sustained through illegal mining, taxation, agriculture and regional military alliances. ✍But who finds the FDLR useful? UN experts and Human Rights Watch have repeatedly documented instances of the Congolese army (FARDC) coordinating with, supplying arms and ammunition to, or operating alongside the FDLR and other abusive militias. In 2022, 2025 and 2026, HRW reported that FARDC provided ammunition and other support to armed groups deployed against the AFC/M23 rebellion, including FDLR, which has targeted Congolese Tutsi civilians by accusing them of sympathising with the rebels. ✍UN investigators have linked the group to gold and other mineral extraction, charcoal production, timber, cannabis cultivation, poaching, farming and the taxation of miners, traders, vehicles and civilians. Earlier UN assessments concluded that armed groups - particularly the FDLR - could generate several million US dollars annually from gold mining and trade alone. ✍The calculation is an estimate based on the former commander’s figures, not an audited account. However, it illustrates the scale of an economy that is easily underestimated when FDLR is portrayed solely as a forest-based militia. Read:thegreatlakeseye.com/post?s=…