Forming a consessus on issues around Wazalendo during a Conference organized by DYPOL in partnership with Friedrich Ebert Stiftung

Today Friday May 15^th, 2026 we participated in a Public Conference which was organized by the German Foundation Friedrich Ebert Stiftung in Kinshasa, under the theme: Between the defense of the territory and the authority of the state: The challenges of Wazalendo.

The entire discussions focused on Wazalendo operating in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and who are accused of committing human rights violations against civilians.

Much as the debate was passionate especially in this period where Wazalendo are engaged against Rwandan Army deployed in some parts of the DRC, the meeting observed that they are not well organized, structured, supported and trained in order to carry out their work of defending the country and this has resulted to massive human rights violations against civilians.

Despite the exchanged marked by the lack of information and wrong information from the participants during the discussions a consensus was reached on the following points:

No one in DRC should accept that Wazalendo may be considered as a negative force, and the name Wazalendo should not be used as a green card to perpetrate crimes. They operate in areas where the DRC Government is totally absent and have used different cohesive tactics in order to survive including exploiting the civilians under their control. And again this is due to the lack of Government presence into the situation of Wazalendo.

In order to calm worries of those who believed Wazalendo are likely to become a danger in the future, the Government representatives explained all measures in place in order to take care of those who will be willing to reform.

The meeting observed that Wazalendo are first of local civilians who are coming together in order to resist against Rwandan aggression and the end of the war in itself will solve the existence of some Wazalendo Groups who will no longer have reasons why they should take guns against their own brothers and sisters in their very same communities.

We observed the lack of initiatives and projects geared towards Wazalendo and this should be addressed in order to put in place activities focusing on their trainings and survival opportunities which can help to reconstruct their lives. Wazalendo are not only those who have the intention to resist against Rwanda but also others who joined in order to commit crimes and others who were introduced there by Rwanda in order to create confusion.

We observed that the narratives people have about Wazalendo are totally different especially between people who come from areas under Wazalendo and who understand very well the whole situation and then others for the rest of the country who have either fragmented information or just biased information which aim at presenting Wazalendo as a danger. Getting information in DRC may not be the problem but also the source of the information may cause serious problems on the same topic, so people should be careful to analyze the source of information.

We reiterated our position that Wazalendo are necessary and we need them but we should put in place various projects which can help them to improve and protect civilians in areas which they control. However Wazalendo should be not considered as permanent solution, that I why we should engage the state to take up her responsibility towards the security of people in the whole country.