Rwandan rebels still active in Congo

Apr. 4 - Thousands of Rwandan rebels are still active in Congo in spite of co-operation between the neighbours.

The United Nations aid agency recently announced that at least 150,000 refugees in eastern Congo have still not returned to their homes because they are afraid of a Rwandan rebel group that has itself taken refuge in the country.

The Rwandan Hutu rebel Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) is still active in the violence-ravaged North Kivu province of Congo, in spite of co-operation between Congolese and Rwandan army units trying to flush the rebels out.

Fifteen years after ethnic genocide in Rwanda, the alignment of forces in the area has changed, with the Rwandan and Congolese armies now helping each other, but the fact remains that the rebel FDLR is still active.

The latest co-operation between Congo and Rwanda marked a major advance in relations between the two countries, former enemies during a 1998-2003 war, and was touted as a success by government authorities in both Kinshasa and Kigali when the Rwandan withdrew in late February.

But FDLR fighters, some of whom orchestrated Rwanda's 1994 genocide in which 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed, have returned to many of their former positions since Rwanda withdrew its army, provoking renewed violence and displacement.