South Kivu : Colonel Fureko, member of the Banyamulenge community and Wazalendo officer arrested, accused of links with the M23

SOS Médias Burundi

Bukavu, November 10, 2025 – Colonel Fureko, a member of the Banyamulenge community and an officer recently integrated into the local Wazalendo militias, supported by the Congolese authorities, was arrested on Saturday, November 8, in Lemera, in the Uvira territory, while traveling to Mulenge, in the same territory, South Kivu province.

His former comrades accuse him of maintaining links with the M23 rebel group and the Twirwaneho fighters, who are also composed of young Banyamulenge. According to several local sources, Fureko and eight young Banyamulenge men who were with him were beaten, injured, and stripped of their weapons and uniforms, sparking outrage in the region.

Indignation among relatives and residents

Members of the colonel’s family and several Bafulero residents of Lemera and Kitoga are denouncing what they call unjustified mistreatment.

“Colonel Fureko was a loyal and dedicated man. We lived together in Kitoga and Masango. It’s incomprehensible that he’s being accused of being with the M23 while he was fighting against that very movement,” testified a resident of Kitoga.

“The M23 is in Katogota and Kamanyola; that’s where he went to fight them,” he added.

Regional context : a complex and deadly conflict

Since the beginning of the year, rebels affiliated with the Congo River Alliance (AFC) have controlled several strategic, mineral-rich locations in the provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu, as well as the provincial capitals of Goma and Bukavu.

After the fall of Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu was moved to Uvira, a few kilometers from Bujumbura, Burundi’s commercial capital. In this region, the M23 has a significant ally : the armed group Twirwaneho, composed of members of the Banyamulenge community.

To counter these rebels, the Congolese authorities have called upon the Mai-Mai, now integrated into the Wazalendo, local militias supported by Kinshasa. Burundi has deployed approximately 10,000 soldiers to eastern Congo to support the FARDC (Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo) and their allied militias in operations against the M23 and Twirwaneho fighters, while Kigali denies any support for the M23, despite reports from UN experts.

Community divisions and local controversies

For some observers, the arrest of Colonel Fureko illustrates the persistent mistrust of the Banyamulenge community in eastern DRC.

“Fureko had pledged to defend the DRC against the M23 and Twirwaneho fighters, but those he fought alongside turned against him solely because of his origins,” a local activist believes.

However, some members of the Banyamulenge community accuse him of having participated in offensives against Banyamulenge settlements.

“He had led attacks in Kahololo with the Mai-Mai. His arrest is a good thing : he had betrayed his people,” said a young man from the Banyamulenge community based in Rurambo, clearly pleased.

Fragile local military alliances

Since 2022, Colonel Fureko had been collaborating with the Mai-Mai, Gumino—an armed group composed of members of the Banyamulenge community but opposed to the M23—the FARDC (Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo), and elements of the Burundian army in operations against the Twirwaneho armed group.

Before joining the Mai-Mai, Fureko served as a senior officer in the FARDC, the Congolese loyalist army. Internal rivalries and intercommunity tensions are weakening local military alliances and maintaining a climate of instability in the South Kivu highlands.

Current detention

Colonel Fureko and his companions are currently held in a cell in Luvungi, one of the villages in the Bafulero chiefdom in the Uvira territory, pending further investigation.