FNI and FRPI: Local resistance and regional alliances in north-eastern Congo (Usalama Project)
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FNI and FRPI: Local resistance and regional alliances in north-eastern Congo (Usalama Project)
Both groups were born out of local feuding over land, and proxy wars between Kinshasa, Kampala, and Kigali. The involvement of Rwanda and Uganda in Ituri dwindled after 2005, which made it easier for the Congolese government and its foreign partners to arrest or integrate armed group commanders and dismantle the groups. However, the government has never thoroughly addressed the local roots of the fighting, making a rekindling of the conflict a constant possibility, especially as regional tensions mount in the wake of the M23 rebellion.
Together with the Ugandan army, the FNI and FRPI forced the UPC out of Ituri’s capital, Bunia, in March 2003. After Uganda’s withdrawal from the district two months later, however, the UPC recaptured the city in a battle that left hundreds of civilians dead. In the subsequent months, the two groups retreated to their respective strongholds in northern and southern Ituri. There, internal conflict and splits soon revealed the gulf between politicians and local militia commanders in the FNI and even more so in the FRPI. The illusion of two well-organized armed groups, created in 2002 with support from the Congolese and Ugandan governments, thus once again gave way to the reality of heavily fragmented, localized militias.
By late 2007, most of their commanders and troops had integrated into the Congolese army. While the FNI’s politicians created a political party, the FRPI maintained a small but disruptive force in Walendu Bindi. In May 2010, Cobra Matata, the most notorious of the FRPI commanders, defected from the army and re-joined his former comrades. Since late 2011, he has been benefiting from army defections and new rebel coalitions, all of which have been linked in some way with the M23. In the meantime, Kinshasa has alternated between fighting and negotiating with the FRPI, while doing little to address pervasive tensions surrounding land and local power.
Integrating Cobra’s men into the national army, however, would not by itself bring lasting peace to Ituri. As long as the government is unable to tackle the broader issues, long-term stability will remain elusive.
