Kinshasa has said it has been holding talks with the FDLR to persuade the group to lay down its weapons. However, the group has reportedly rejected proposals that would see its members return to Rwanda. The DRC has yet to disclose the name of the country that has agreed to receive them.

The decision to keep the country's identity confidential has raised questions over which nation is prepared to accept members of a group that has been linked to a security crisis in the Great Lakes region for more than three decades.

The FDLR, which is deeply entrenched in eastern DRC, remains a major security concern for the Great Lakes region, including Rwanda. Its history is closely linked to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, in which more than one million people were killed over 100 days.

The group was established by former members of the former Rwandan Armed Forces (ex-FAR) and the Interahamwe militia who were involved in the genocide. Over the years, the FDLR has maintained an armed presence in eastern DRC and has been accused of propagating an ideology of hatred and violence.

The Washington Accords, signed in December 2025, called for the accelerated dismantling of the FDLR. The FDLR subsequently put forward a proposal for voluntary disarmament and demobilisation, which the Congolese government took up in its engagements with regional and international partners. Rwanda rejected the proposal, arguing that it was inconsistent with the commitments made under the Washington agreements.

Floribert Anzuluni, Congo's minister responsible for regional cooperation, said talks with a country that could receive disarmed FDLR members had reached an advanced stage.

“One country has already given its consent,” Anzuluni told RFI, adding that Kinshasa would announce the country's identity publicly soon.

Under the DRC's proposal, FDLR members would first surrender their weapons. Those willing to return to Rwanda would be repatriated, while those unwilling or unable to return would be given the option of relocating to one or more other countries.

But any country considering accepting FDLR members would need to conduct thorough background checks and carefully assess the implications of their admission.

The FDLR is not simply a group of refugees seeking a place to settle. Its history is inseparable from the role played by some of its members in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

The group's activities have also had consequences beyond its strongholds in eastern DRC. The region has served as a base from which the FDLR has recruited fighters and conducted operations. The group has also been accused of involvement in the conflict between the Congolese army, FARDC, and the AFC/M23, as well as attacks affecting civilians.

A UN Security Council assessment has attributed serious violations of international law to the FDLR, including killings, injuries, sexual violence and forced displacement. Women and children have been among those affected.

Rwanda has consistently argued that an armed group associated with genocide ideology should not be treated as a legitimate political interlocutor or given a platform for negotiations.

For any country considering accepting FDLR members, the central question is whether relocation would contribute to dismantling the group's armed structures and ideology, or simply provide it with a new environment in which to operate.

If the receiving country is genuinely committed to supporting peace and stability, accepting disarmed FDLR members should not substitute for efforts to dismantle the group's military and organisational structures and address the ideology that has sustained it.

The relocation of FDLR members could either form part of a broader effort to resolve a security crisis that has persisted for more than 30 years, or simply change the location and nature of the problem. The country that ultimately accepts them will therefore face an important question: whether it is prepared to assume responsibility for the consequences.

How large is the FDLR?

A July 2026 report by UN experts presents conflicting estimates of the FDLR's strength.

The FDLR itself claims to have more than 10,000 fighters, nearly half of whom it says are engaged in regular military activities. The FDLR-CRAP faction has separately claimed to have more than 20,000 fighters.

The UN report, however, says those figures are not considered reliable. UN officials and intelligence agencies estimate that the FDLR has between 3,500 and 4,500 fighters.

The Washington Accords put the group's strength at between 3,000 and 3,500 fighters.

The disparity between the group's own claims and external estimates underscores the difficulty of establishing the FDLR's exact military strength, and the challenge facing any effort to disarm, dismantle and relocate its members.