Clearly blocked on the front line of Lubero in North Kivu by the presence of the Congolese and Ugandan coalition forces, Rwandan President Paul Kagame has, once again, tried to muddy the waters by creating a new “proxy” group whose members are presented as Wazalendo, these patriots-resistance fighters of the Kivus who, exasperated by thirty years of atrocities, have recently been formed to drive the Rwandan occupation forces and their cronies out of their hamlets, in concert with the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo. In doing so, Kigali is replicating a trick in which it has specialised, which consists of creating from scratch “negative forces” among those that its army claims to be fighting.
The information was widely disseminated by various trolls scattered here and there by the Rwandan Patriotic Front digital army in power in Kigali and some media outlets. Sunday, March 9, 2025. Congolese Wazalendo (patriots in Swahili) groups have reportedly decided to break their allegiance to the Democratic Republic of Congo to join the ranks of the AFC/M23 of the Makenga-Bisimwa-Nangaa trio, thus dealing a hard blow to the brand image of this nationalist and combative movement, rather hated by Kigali because of the losses that its members have continued to inflict on the elements of the Rwanda defense forces deployed in the DRC.
In reality, this defection of Wazalendo, trumpeted in all tones at the end of last weekend, concerned exclusively a group located in the Lubero region where intense clashes had recently taken place between the FARDC supported by the resistance and the Rwandan army accompanied by its auxiliaries from the AFC/M23. The announcement was made by a Front of Patriots for Peace – People’s Army (FPP-AP) led by the self-proclaimed “general” Kasereka Kasiyano alias “Kabidon” who said in a widely shared post that he had joined the ranks of the Rwandan aggressors and their auxiliaries of the ADF/M23. Recorded on March 7 and broadcast 48 hours later, the claim was made by a certain Augustin Darwin, spokesman for the group, who claimed that a second Wazalendo handle, the Nduma defense of Congo Rénové (NDC/R.M.) of “General” (also self-proclaimed) Mapenzi, had joined this defection from the ranks of patriotic fighters supporting the loyalist forces in their maquis.
For several observers in the region, the defection of these Wazalendo members of the platform called the Common Front of the Resistance (FCR) was foreseeable.
Defection without surprise
Although it was one of the very first Wazalendo groups to join the fight against the M23 alongside the Armed Forces of the DRC, Kabidon’s FPP-AP had been cited since December 2023 among the armed groups allied to the AFC by the renegade Corneille Nangaa, which was vehemently denied by its leader. When Goma fell at the end of January 2025, however, it was Désiré Ngabo, a close associate of Kabidon, who was appointed deputy mayor of the martyred city by the Rwandan occupation forces without the slightest reaction, this time, from the group’s leaders. «The accession of Kabidon and his PPF/PA is not a surprise. It’s just the formalization of everything we reported to all the military authorities, both provincial and national, but no one wanted to listen to us», reveals Ricky Paluku of the coordination of the Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP) Wazalendo in the Lubero region, which has remained loyal to the central government in Kinshasa and the FARDC. The man lists in detail several highly suspicious acts and acts of war committed by the new recruit of the Rwandan invaders. In particular, the diversion of arms and ammunition intended for the Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP) Wazalendo, which is now known to have been the main cause of the fall of the city of Rutshuru to the invaders. He also evokes the brutal and murderous exactions of the PPF/PA hordes on harmless civilian populations in the region who are reluctant to pay illegal taxes, etc.
A humanitarian source also reports that the Kabidon gang is accused of an impressive series of massacres, roundups and looting in the territories of Beni in North Kivu and Irumu in Ituri where these henchmen posed as Ugandan rebels from Joseph Kony‘s Democratic Forces Alliance, a Ugandan rebellion opposed to the regime of President Yoweri Museveni that scoured this area before being pushed further north thanks to the joint operation Shujaa set up by the FARDC and the UPDF. «The number 1 of the FPP-AP had been collaborating with Rwanda for years and we had learned that when he went to Goma, he took the opportunity to secretly visit a Rwandan mistress with whom he had children during a long stay in Kigali», the source reveals.
Infiltrated Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland
It turns out that in reality, President Paul Kagame and his phalanxes had managed to infiltrate the Wazalendo movement through pseudo VDPs that the Rwandan Congo desk had created a long time ago. The takeover proved to be consistent because the PPF-AP is generally considered to be one of the best-structured armed groups in North Kivu. From Mbwavinywa to the south of Lubero where his headquarters are located, he extends his influence to the gates of the province of Tshopo via Mangurejipa. The group lives off plunder, taxes or tolls illegally imposed on the local populations and gold mining. “General” Kabidon would have been given the mission of destabilizing the Ugandan government forces deployed in the region and thus allowing the fall of Lubero, followed by those of Beni and especially the large commercial center of Butembo in order to allow the Rwandan assailants and their cronies to link up with the ADF, several remnants of which are still active in this part of North Kivu and Ituri.
Nevertheless, the new allies of the AFC/M23 terrorists supported by the Rwandan army should reckon with the vast majority of the VDP Wazalendo groups that have remained loyal to Kinshasa. Barely a few hours after the announcement of the rallying of Kabidon’s PPF-AP to the Rwandan aggressors, many voices were raised to denounce and condemn the betrayal and reaffirm the patriotic ideal that has always guided the commitment of the Wazalendo to the defense of the territorial integrity of the DRC. Starting with the Synergy of Wazalendo/Front Grand-Nord, which said in a statement on March 9, 2025, that the position taken by the FPP/AP «only commits this movement and not the other members. The Synergy in its entirety remains at the side of the President of the Republic and reaffirms its loyalty to our FARDC», the statement reads. Or again, that «the adhesion of the FPP/AP on the side of the M23-RDF terrorists and their ally AFC will have no impact on the smooth running of the operations to hunt down the cutthroats of the so-called ADF and the other aggressors who scour our region». The text signed by John Mahangaiko, spokesman for the synergy, calls for a coalition of all the Wazalendo «to hunt down all these long-time allies of Rwanda».
Outcry of denunciations among the Wazalendo
Shukuru Bulenda, leader of the Wazalendo Mai-Mai Kifuafua group, also condemned the defection of Kabidon‘s group, accused of wanting to tarnish the image of the Wazalendo «who fight for the defense of the Congolese homeland and who support all the institutions legally established in our country». Shimiray Guidon, commander of the Wazalendo of North Kivu, strongly condemned the defection of their former comrade-in-arms, who was already suspected of collaborating with the Rwandan army. «The VDP is lined up behind the ideology of the head of state. The real VDPs will never give in, neither to manipulation nor, even less, to the solicitation of the enemy because for them, the Democratic Republic of Congo will remain one and indivisible», he writes.
PARECO, another Wazalendo movement in North Kivu, has also unequivocally denied any VDP membership in the AFC/M23. Its leader, General Mutayomba, has never surrendered to the Rwandan forces and their proxies, contrary to information disseminated on social networks, according to a briefing note.
For their part, the Armed Forces of the DRC reacted to the rallying of the FPP/PA to the enemy forces on Monday, March 10, 2025, described as an «about-face motivated by financial and mining interests», according to their spokesperson in the Kanyabayonga-Eringeti region. «Kabidon occupied an area where there are minerals. In my analysis, he may realize that his interests are threatened, they can only rally behind the people they think are strong. Unfortunately, he wants to protect his interests by betraying the Republic», said Colonel Mak Hazukay.
J.N.