M23 extradites FDLR 'General' linked to murder of queen Rosalie Gicanda to Rwanda
In a statement, Foreign Affairs Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe commended the M23 group’s actions and criticised the international community for failing to do so earlier.
Rwandan government has confirmed receiving several militia members from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), one of the largest armed groups in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), following their capture by the M23 armed group in Goma, North Kivu.
Among those captured is Brigadier Ezechiel Gakwerere, who is believed to have played a role in the murder of Rwanda’s last queen, Rosalie Gicanda, during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.
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Gakwerere was the third-highest-ranking officer within the FDLR, following Maj. Gen. Gaston Iyamuremye (alias Victor Byiringiro) and Maj. Gen. Pacifique Ntawunguka (alias Omega).
In a statement, Rwanda’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Olivier Nduhungirehe, commended the M23’s actions while criticising the international community for failing to act earlier.
“And today, a group of FDLR combatants captured on the battlefield (including Brig Gen Ezechiel Gakwerere, one of the murderers of Queen Rosalie Gicanda) were handed over to Rwanda by the AFC/M23, a rebel movement that is doing the very job that the self-righteous international community should have done over the past 30 years. But guess who they now call the 'villain'...,” Nduhungirehe stated in a post on X.
The M23 rebels captured Gakwerere and 14 others from the eastern DRC and repatriated them. He has been actively engaged in combat as part of the Congolese government coalition, which includes Burundian forces, troops from the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and local militias known as Wazalendo.
"We told Western countries many times that, for the past 30 years, the FDLR genocidal force has been a permanent threat to Rwanda, especially as they are now supported by the Congolese government and embedded in the FARDC.
"Unfortunately, these world powers refused to listen to us, arguing that the FDLR combatants are just a bunch of 'old and weak' people and that Rwanda is using them as a pretext to 'invade Congo for minerals,'" the minister added.
Rwanda has maintained for years that dismantling the FDLR and repatriating its members is necessary to address the security threat it poses. However, the DRC and its allies have countered these claims, asserting that the FDLR is composed of ageing, insignificant fighters who no longer pose any real danger.
The capture of Brig Gen Gakwerere, who was involved in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, challenges the notion that the FDLR is inactive. Instead, it provides evidence that its members continue to operate and have been incorporated into the Congolese Armed Forces (FARDC).
Gakwerere’s name appears multiple times in the UN tribunal’s (ICTR) indictment of Captain Ildephonse Nizeyimana, the former commandant of the military academy Ecole des Sous-Officiers (ESO Butare), who was convicted of genocide. Nizeyimana, known as the “Butcher of Butare,” was found guilty of ordering the murder of thousands of Tutsi in Butare, including Queen Gicanda. He was sentenced to life in prison in 2012, later reduced to 35 years in 2014.
According to the UN prosecutor in Nizeyimana’s 2010 indictment, Gakwerere played a critical role in training members of the former Rwandan army (FAR) and the Interahamwe militia, who were instrumental in the Butare massacres.
“These acts of training and distributing weapons to the Interahamwe were done in furtherance of the purposes of such a joint criminal enterprise,” stated the indictment.
The FDLR, a UN-sanctioned terrorist group, was founded by remnants of the former Rwandan army and Interahamwe militia who perpetrated the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Despite international condemnation, the group has remained active in the DRC for three decades, operating under various aliases.
Rwanda has consistently charged the DRC with backing the FDLR, a group known for disseminating hate speech and oppressing Congolese Tutsi communities. The group has been integrated into the FARDC to combat the M23 rebels.
The late General Peter Cirimwami, a Congolese military commander and governor of North Kivu province who was killed in January, was reportedly the liaison between the Congolese government and the FDLR. Additionally, the FDLR’s overall commander, Pacifique ‘Omega’ Ntawunguka, was reportedly killed in combat in late January.
Queen Rosalie Gicanda, the widow of King Mutara III Rudahigwa, was murdered on April 20, 1994, in the former Butare Prefecture on the orders of Captain Nizeyimana. At the time of her death, she was 66 years old.
Her murder marked the culmination of years of humiliation at the hands of both the genocidal government and Belgium. Just weeks before the genocide began, Belgian authorities expelled Queen Gicanda despite her need for medical attention. In February 1994, while she was receiving treatment in the Belgian city of Nivelle, officials wrote to her demanding she leave, even though her visa was still valid. Officials warned her not to travel to Luxembourg or the Netherlands and threatened to prosecute her if she disobeyed.
Gicanda was killed a day after the only Tutsi prefect at the time, Jean Baptiste Habyarimana of Butare, was replaced by an extremist, Sylvain Nsabimana. Nsabimana was assigned by the then-interim President Theodore Sindikubwabo to accelerate the genocide in the prefecture.
Queen Gicanda is buried at the Mwima Mausoleum in Rwanda’s Nyanza District.
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