The Banyamulenge, a Tutsi community in the Eastern DRC, have despite their small size, been at the centre of many of the disparate conflicts in the eastern DRC for most of the past two decades. The initial 1996 invasion by a Rwandan-backed insurgent coalition that aimed to topple Mobutu Sese Seko became known as ‘the Banyamulenge rebellion’, and the Second Congo War of 1998–2003 saw Banyamulenge take on top positions as rebel commanders and political leaders.

During this period of nearly 20 years, the community has been stuck in a cycle of persecution and insurgency. Banyamulenge have been labelled by their neighbours as foreigners and fifth columnists operating on behalf of Rwanda. In response, many young Banyamulenge men have joined rebellions backed by Rwanda, creating a culture of soldiering and politics, and involving them in brutal counterinsurgency operations against local militias that have fuelled prejudice and conspiracies against the community as a whole.

The Banyamulenge have also succumbed to several bouts of internecine fighting, beginning in 2002, as part of a gradual but tumultuous realignment toward the government in Kinshasa. The recent M23 rebellion in North Kivu has highlighted this senior Banyamulenge officers in the Congolese army were deployed on the frontlines, while repeated efforts by Rwanda and the M23 to mobilize the Banyamulenge community have mostly failed.

In 2011, the last major Banyamulenge insurgency came to an end, allowing for the restoration of a modicum of unity within the community. It seems unlikely that there will be another broad-based Banyamulenge rebellion soon. The community is too small, politically weak and vulnerable to keep fighting between themselves—and many Banyamulenge officers have attained influential positions in the national army. For similar reasons, the ties between Banyamulenge and Rwanda have frayed, with many in the community feeling that this alliance had only damaged relations with their neighbours.

Nonetheless, several small Banyamulenge armed groups documented in this report remain in the Hauts Plateaux (High Plateaus) mountain range, highlighting the opportunism that still animates some Banyamulenge commanders, as well as the continued, albeit diminished, involvement of Rwanda. It also demonstrates the extent to which the rhetoric of community self-protection can still be used to justify insurgencies. For these reasons, recent gains could be quickly eroded if more is not done to hold political and military leaders to account and address long-standing communal tensions.