U.S. Warns DR Congo against Collaborating with Sanctioned FDLR Rebel Group

The United States has warned the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) against cooperating with the FDLR, a rebel group it has designated as a terrorist organization and subjected to sanctions.

This message was delivered on July 23, 2025, by Tammy Bruce, spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State, while outlining America’s role in supporting peace efforts in the DRC and the broader Great Lakes region.

Bruce reminded the DRC of the key provisions in the peace agreement signed between Rwanda and the DRC on June 27with U.S. facilitationincluding the disbanding of the FDLR and the removal of defensive measures imposed by Rwanda.

“The United States urges the DRC to immediately cease all cooperation with the FDLR, an armed group under U.S. and UN sanctions, and to hold accountable those collaborating with it,” she stated.

The FDLR was formed by remnants of the former Rwandan army (Ex-FAR), Interahamwe militia, and political figures from the regime of former President Juvénal Habyarimanamany of whom played a key role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

While operating under its former name, ALiR, the group launched a deadly attack in Uganda’s Bwindi National Park in 1999, killing nine people, including two American tourists. That incident led to the U.S. officially designating the group as a terrorist organization.

For over two decades, the U.S. has imposed sanctions on various FDLR leadersfreezing any assets they may hold in the United States and barring them from receiving U.S. visasdue to their destabilizing activities in the DRC.

In August 2023, the U.S. sanctioned several senior FDLR figures, including Apollinaire Hakizimana, then-FDLR military commissioner; Brig. Gen. Sebastien Uwimbabazi, the group’s intelligence chief; and the late Col. Ruvugayimikore Protogene, alias “Ruhinda”, who commanded FDLR’s elite unit known as CRAP.