More than 1,000 Rwandan combatants repatriated from DR Congo and mostly members of the Forces démocratiques pour la libération du Rwanda (FDLR) , a Hutu armed group founded by fugitive perpetrators of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, are set to be discharged Tuesday, a senior official from the Rwanda Demobilisation and Reintegration Commission (RDRC) confirmed Monday in Kigali.
Upon repatriation last year, the group of combatants were settled in two separate rehabilitation camps of Mutobo (North) and Nyarushishi in South Western Rwanda where they have been going through a verification and registration exercise before receiving basic skills training in agriculture, health, including HIV/AIDS awareness, as well as reading and writing
They were issued with a basic-needs kit, according to Grace Mugabe, the communications expert at the Demobilization Commission.
Their forced repatriation last year came after the DR Congo army stepped up an offensive against terror groups in an ongoing effort to rout out all foreign armed militias based in the neighbouring country.
Private security firms in Rwanda, which always contact the commission when they have vacancies, have hired illiterate demobilised soldiers.
But for members of the ex-FAR Interahamwe, reintegration is much more difficult because of their involvement in the genocide. Despite this, Rwigyema said, there had been marked progress in reintegrating those who had returned, by virtue of the involvement of local administrators.
CU/abj/APA