Drc authorities urged to cease support for armed group linked to war crimes

An armed group operating with the backing of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) has been implicated in a horrific campaign of violence, including the killing and torture of civilians, widespread looting, and the abduction of women, forcing them into sexual slavery within Rutshuru territory in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). These disturbing findings were brought to light on June 25.

The Collective of Movements for Change-People’s Defense Forces (CMC-FDP) is a component of the Wazalendo (meaning “patriots” in Swahili), a loosely organized alliance of armed factions utilized by the Congolese army as auxiliary forces in their ongoing conflict against the Rwandan-backed March 23 Movement (M23). The CMC-FDP primarily conducts its operations in the Bukombo grouping of Rutshuru, an area currently under M23 control.

Civilians residing in or around Bukombo find themselves trapped between the brutality of the M23 and the equally severe actions of the CMC-FDP. Their daily ordeal is appalling, particularly in isolated regions where the CMC-FDP operates with complete impunity.

Tigere Chagutah, Regional Director for East and Southern Africa

The group maintains isolated strongholds within Bukombo and deliberately targets civilians, often under the cover of night or in areas where M23 fighters are less numerous. Following confrontations with the M23, CMC-FDP combatants have retaliated against individuals believed to have familial ties to M23 members. Such human rights violations against civilians flagrantly disregard international humanitarian law and could constitute war crimes.

“Civilians living in or around Bukombo are caught in a brutal vise, squeezed between the M23’s violence and the CMC-FDP’s aggression. The daily suffering they endure is horrific, especially in remote areas where the CMC-FDP acts without consequence,” stated Tigere Chagutah, Regional Director for East and Southern Africa.

“While DRC authorities rightly condemn the M23’s violence, they frequently overlook comparable violence and human rights abuses perpetrated by the Wazalendo, including the CMC-FDP. In effect, this condones these crimes and absolves the state of its duty to protect civilians and bring Wazalendo combatants to justice. The international community must exert pressure on the DRC government to immediately cease its support for these armed groups.”

Between March and April 2026, remote interviews were conducted via secure phone applications with 16 victims, including survivors of rape and sexual assault, and family members of civilians killed, raped, tortured, abducted, or subjected to ill-treatment by CMC-FDP combatants between June and December 2025. Credible information from human rights defenders also detailed similar violence attributed to the group in the region, including summary executions and house burnings.

The international community must press the DRC government to immediately end its support for these armed groups.

Tigere Chagutah

On June 8, 2026, a letter was sent to the CMC-FDP outlining these findings and requesting information on the conduct of the group’s commanders and fighters towards civilians in controlled areas. The CMC-FDP spokesperson, Héritier Donald Gashegu, responded in writing on June 16, 2026, denying all responsibility for the documented human rights abuses and asserting the group’s “commitment to human rights and the discipline of its combatants.”

Rape and other sexual violence against women

A woman in her early twenties recounted how, after her husband joined the M23 in May 2025, CMC-FDP combatants abducted her from her home and held her captive for three months. “They gave me a choice: either I went with them, or they would kill me,” she stated.

She described being held in a house within their camp, where combatants introduced her to a commander who would become her “husband.” Daily, she was given a cup of taro and maize to eat. She observed two other women detained in the camp but was threatened with being shot if she spoke to them. The commander, she reported, repeatedly raped her. “I thought he would kill me if I refused. He came every night [for sexual relations].” This woman managed to escape when the M23 attacked the CMC-FDP camp.

Another 22-year-old woman shared her experience, stating that CMC-FDP fighters abducted her in June 2025 after her husband joined the M23. She was taken to their Mudugudu base in Bukombo and forced to become a commander’s “wife.” “He said, ‘If you don’t sleep with me, I will kill you.’” She noted that four other women in the camp were also forced into similar “marriages” with combatants.

She further witnessed civilians being detained and mistreated at the camp. “They would take people and bring them to the base. If you had nothing of value, they would beat you. If you were lucky, they left you alone. They put people in [underground detention cells]. They detained people to extort money.” These actions bear the hallmarks of the war crime of hostage-taking.

This woman escaped in October 2025 following an M23 assault on the camp.

Both survivors of sexual violence interviewed were held under conditions amounting to sexual slavery. They reported contracting sexually transmitted infections as a result of the rapes, causing them pain and suffering. While these two women received treatment at health centers, many victims of sexual violence perpetrated by Wazalendo armed groups lack access to adequate medical or psychological care.

Sexual slavery and other forms of sexual violence committed during armed conflict constitute grave breaches of international humanitarian law, amounting to war crimes. They also violate several human rights, including the right to equality and non-discrimination, the right to physical integrity, and the right not to be subjected to torture or other forms of ill-treatment.

The CMC-FDP categorically “rejects” allegations that its combatants raped, sexually enslaved, or forced women into “marriage” with its commanders. The group stated, “No complaint, official report, or referral has been brought to the attention of our internal disciplinary or judicial bodies concerning the facts mentioned.”

CMC-FDP leaders should have been aware of the violence perpetrated by their commanders. They could be considered complicit if they knew such violence was occurring and failed to act to prevent or stop it.

Ill-treatment and other violence against women

On November 20, 2025, eight individuals, including a pregnant woman and her husband, sought refuge in a banana plantation in Mashango, a village in Bukombo, during a firefight between the M23 and local armed groups, likely including the CMC-FDP.

Armed combatants discovered them and demanded cooking oil. “We told them we had no oil left. They then looted everything from our homes and burned our houses. One [of the combatants] took pity on me. He said, ‘This woman is pregnant and will soon give birth; we must spare her.’”

The woman identified them as CMC-FDP combatants because the group maintained a base in Mashango, within the Bukombo grouping, an area it controlled.

The combatants took her husband and killed him. “They cut him with a machete. Everyone was killed with a machete. I then went to search for the bodies… when we found them, they were already decomposing.” This woman gave birth to a baby boy, alone in the forest, at 5:30 p.m. that very day.

Another female victim told how her husband joined the M23 in June 2025, and CMC-FDP combatants came to her home the following month. “Four of them [arrived] at noon,” she stated. “Two had pistols, the other two had whips. I begged them to pity me because I was pregnant. They replied, ‘Your pregnancy is not our problem; we want to see your husband.’ They beat me severely. They hit me and wounded me with a knife. The next day, I suffered a miscarriage.”

The CMC-FDP denied the allegation that they looted and burned houses.

Revenge killings and summary executions

Nine victims and survivors reported that CMC-FDP combatants killed their husbands or abducted them because their sons or husbands had joined the M23.

A 35-year-old woman explained that a CMC-FDP commander and six combatants came to her home in Kyahemba, a village in the Bukombo grouping, in November 2025. She stated that the commander entered the house and asked her, “Did you allow [the M23] to recruit your child?” The woman indicated that her 15-year-old son had left without warning earlier that month to join the M23. “I replied that I didn’t know how he was recruited. At that moment, he began shooting my husband.” She specified that her husband was shot three times in the chest in front of their eight- and six-year-old children. She was later informed that her son had died while with the M23.

They shot him [my husband] three times in the chest and genitals. After killing him, they looted the house. They left with four goats, clothes, and cooking pots.

Elisabeth*

According to four victims and information provided by a human rights defender, a CMC-FDP commander based in Kyahemba was involved in the detention or killing of their relatives.

Another woman, Elisabeth*, described how six CMC-FDP combatants, four of whom were former neighbors, came to her home in November 2025, searching for her husband. “They told us to leave the house. They said, ‘You are collaborating with the [M23]…’ They acted as if [my husband] was in league with the M23. They shot him three times in the chest and genitals. After killing him, they looted the house. They left with four goats, clothes, and cooking pots.”

In its response, the CMC-FDP did not specify measures taken to investigate allegations of civilian killings, claiming insufficient information to conduct inquiries.

Extortion and threats

Prior to the M23’s arrival in the region, the CMC-FDP extorted money from residents through a form of taxation called lala salama (“sleep peacefully” in Swahili). These “taxes” were purportedly for civilian protection. One victim stated her husband joined the M23 because he was fed up with these extortions.

Innocent*, who worked in Kyahemba, reported that CMC-FDP combatants approached him three times since his son joined the M23 in August 2025, demanding money on this basis. He paid them 300 US dollars. “Each time, they told me to make my son join their group. I said I didn’t take him there. How was I supposed to find him? Each time they came, they beat me. They burned three houses, mine and two others. They said they would kill me if I didn’t give them money.”

Justine*, a 20-year-old woman, stated her husband fled in July or August of last year without warning. In September, CMC-FDP combatants came to her home. “I look like a Tutsi. [The CMC-FDP combatants] forced the door open, entered, and whipped me once on the back and once on the chest. They tied my hands. They told me, ‘Tell us where your husband is.’” When she replied she didn’t know, they said they would take her to one of the CMC-FDP military commanders, implying he would force her to reveal her husband’s whereabouts.

Each time they came, they beat me. They burned three houses, mine and two others. They said they would kill me if I didn’t give them money.

Innocent*

En route, one of the combatants helped her escape. “I was carrying a child, and the combatant took pity on the baby. He said, ‘If you go through here, they will kill you.’”

Justine believed fear drove her husband to join the M23. She explained that in July or August, the M23 had threatened her husband, saying, “[You] are a Tutsi from Rwanda, and all Tutsis who do not join the M23 will be decapitated.”

The CMC-FDP stated it has “neither a policy nor a practice of demanding ransoms or payments from relatives of those who have joined the M23 or any other enemy movement. If isolated cases of behavior contrary to our principles existed, we would be the first interested in identifying the perpetrators so that appropriate measures are taken in accordance with disciplinary rules and the requirements of justice.”

CMC-FDP leaders should have been aware of extortion and ransom practices and had a responsibility to investigate them and hold involved combatants accountable. If they knew these actions were taking place and failed to act to stop them, they could be considered complicit.

Congolese army support for the CMC-FDP

In May 2023, the DRC enacted a law establishing the Armed Defense Reserve, which allowed for the integration of certain local armed groups, including the CMC-FDP, into the Congolese army, thus forming an auxiliary force to combat the M23.

The FARDC provides financial and material support, including weapons and ammunition, to these armed groups. In December 2025, the DRC’s Minister of Finance informed the National Assembly’s Defense and Security Commission that the state was paying Wazalendo groups 4 million US dollars per month.

According to an internal document from the North Kivu military government, obtained by Ebuteli, a Congolese research group, the CMC-FDP received over 100,000 rounds of ammunition and more than 100 40-millimeter rockets from the FARDC in late 2023 and early 2024.

It is unacceptable that the Congolese army continues to support CMC-FDP combatants despite the terrible human rights abuses they inflict on civilians.

Tigere Chagutah

In July 2024, the European Union sanctioned the CMC-FDP’s commander-in-chief, Dominique “Domi” Kamanzi Ndaruhutse, for “committing acts that constitute serious human rights violations and abuses.” This individual has fought with various nyatura (“strike hard” in Kinyarwanda) groups for over a decade and, according to the United Nations Group of Experts on the DRC, has collaborated with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), particularly in the Bwito grouping (Rutshuru territory). The FDLR is an armed opposition group operating in eastern DRC, composed of Rwandan and Congolese fighters. Its ranks include former Interahamwe members and ex-Rwandan soldiers responsible for the 1994 genocide, as well as combatants who did not participate in the genocide.

“It is unacceptable that the Congolese army continues to support CMC-FDP combatants despite the terrible human rights abuses they inflict on civilians,” Tigere Chagutah declared. “The group has engaged in rampant violence for years. Congolese authorities must immediately end collaboration with and support for the CMC-FDP and other Wazalendo groups committing atrocities, and hold them accountable.”

* Pseudonyms are used to protect the identity of interviewees for security and confidentiality reasons.