During a press conference held this Monday, March 6, 2023 in Goma, the Minister of Higher and University Education (HUE), Muhindo Nzangi revealed that local armed groups are now mobilized as reservists who will be equipped in the same way as the Congolese soldiers (FARDC) .
He indicated that this is the consequence of a bill proposed by the Minister of Defense and adopted by the government in the Council of Ministers.
“These are the reservists so that in the event of an attack on our country as is the case today, they are put in the same conditions as the army on the ground. We cannot believe that we will be defended by the others indefinitely (…) Within the government, we no longer want people to say that we are engaging auxiliary forces. There are no auxiliary forces when people are defending their own country, they are true compatriots,” Mohindo Nzangi said during his press conference.
The Minister of HUE and the elected representative of the area went further by arguing that the young militia, locally called “the Wazalendu”, must be protected because today “we have a common enemy even if in the past, they fired on the FARDC”.
“The message that I pass on to the Wazalendu [young resistance fighters, editor’s note] is that this time the government has just put in place a legislative mechanism to legalize you. So from next week, you will receive missions, you will fight on the ground under the same supply conditions as the FARDC,” added the boss of HUE.
In addition, Muhindo Nzangi maintained that the implementation of the demobilization and reintegration program for combatants will take place after the war.
“This option helps us to solve two problems at the same time: to solve our problem of manpower that you know and to empty what were called local armed groups. When these people will be under the proper supervision of the army during operations, I believe that we will no longer speak of local armed groups,” added Minister Muhindo Nzangi.
It should be noted that, Human Rights Watch, had indicated in a report published in October 2022, that the leaders of the Congolese army collaborate with the local armed groups to fight the terrorists of the M23, auxiliaries of the Rwandan army.
