Laurent Nkunda

Laurent Nkunda (alias Laurent Nkunda Bwatare, Laurent Nkundabatware, Laurent Nkunda Mahoro Batware, General Nkunda) was born on 2 February 1967 in Rutshuru, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He is married and has four children.

Nkunda studied as a psychology student before becoming a soldier. From 1993 he joined the Rwandan Patriotic Front, the rebel movement formed by Rwandan Tutsi exiles, which gained control over Rwanda in 1994, thus ending the genocide.

Following this victory, Laurent Nkunda returned to the DRC and in 1998 became senior officer in the Rally for Congolese Democracy-Goma (RCD-Goma), one of the main rebel groups fighting in DRC, supported by the Rwandan government.

In May 2002 Nkunda, together with General Amisi, was alleged to have been among the RCD-Goma officers responsible for the brutal repression of an attempted mutiny in Kisangani, following which more than 160 persons were summarily executed. In one incident, forces under Nkunda's command were reported to have bound, gagged, and executed twenty-eight persons and then put their bodies in bags weighed down with stones before throwing them off a Kisangani bridge. Soon after the U.N. began investigating these crimes, Nkunda and several armed guards allegedly entered the U.N. premises where they abducted and beat two guards.

Following a peace agreement signed in 2003, the RCD joined up with the national army of the transitional government. In 2004 Nkunda was named army general. Nkunda refused, however, to report to Kinshasa under the new integrated army and disappeared with hundreds of his former troops to the forests of Masisi in North Kivu. Despite the peace agreement, soldiers still loyal to RCD-Goma clashed with other Congolese army forces in South Kivu in May 2004. Nkunda and troops loyal to him took control of the South Kivu town of Bukavu on 2 June, claiming this action was necessary to stop the genocide of Congolese Tutsi, known locally as Banyamulenge. There were some who accused Nkunda of following orders from Kigali, which he denied. During this offensive, Nkunda's troops were alleged to have carried out war crimes, including killing, rape and looting.

After U.N. peacekeepers negotiated Nkunda's withdrawal from Bukavu, he and some of his forces headed into the forests of North Kivu while others, commanded by Col. Jules Mutebusi, found safety in Rwanda.

In August 2005, Nkunda declared the then current Congolese government corrupt and incompetent and called for its overthrow. In September 2005, another large number of Rwandan soldiers belonging to the former RCD-Goma deserted the national army in North Kivu and some of them went to join Nkunda in the forests of Masisi.

On 18 January 2006, rebel forces attacked and occupied several towns in Rutshuru territory, North Kivu province, after routing Congolese government soldiers stationed in the area. The rebels were said to be under the orders of Nkunda, an allegation confirmed by the provincial governor in a communiqué issued on 26 January. Local sources reported that both rebel forces and Congolese army troops had committed war crimes through rape, attacking civilians and looting their property. Tens of thousands of Congolese fled to neighbouring regions or across the border to Uganda.

At a Security Council briefing on 16 July 2002, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson called on Congolese authorities to arrest those who had ordered or been involved in the massacre, and warned of further bloodshed if they were not brought to justice.