GENERAL BRUNO MPEZO: REGIONAL-LEVEL COMPLICITY
Official Narrative and Reaction
The FARDC reiterated the standing order (issued November 2023) strictly forbidding any soldier from aiding hostile rebel groups, especially the FDLR. The communiqué stressed that violations would be “severely punished” under Congolese law. News coverage notes that Mpezo “is accused…of having broken the strict directives which prohibit any member of the FARDC…from engaging alongside the FDLR”. The arrest was welcomed by some domestic audiences as evidence of enforcing that policy.
Arrest of 34th Military Region Commander
On 30 December 2023 FARDC authorities arrested Brigadier-General Bruno Mpezo Mbele, commander of the 34th Military Region (North Kivu), accusing him of collaborating with the FDLR. In a FARDC communiqué issued on 30 December 2023, spokesman Sylvain Ekenge announced that Mpezo had been apprehended for mismanagement of resources and for violating the formal prohibition against any FARDC member, regardless of rank, engaging alongside the FDLR. The military justice system was immediately tasked to investigate. According to SOS Médias Burundi, Mpezo is “the first Congolese officer arrested by the military authorities in this matter”.
Mpezo’s arrest functioned as diplomatic theater to appease the UN Group of Experts and international critics, while Cirimwami’s state funeral confirms that the actual policy of Kinshasa remains one of deep integration with the FDLR.