More than 400 Congolese were killed in bombardments and executions in eight South Kivu province towns over a one-week stretch in early December 2025.
The violence forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee to neighboring Burundi and other areas, and prompted a scathing assessment of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) by the National Assembly’s Defense and Security Committee, which met in the aftermath of the carnage.
Viewed by The Africa Report magazine, the assessment highlighted the military’s lack of policy for maintaining a security presence in crucial areas, weak cohesion, fragile chain of command, poor troop rotation, little adaptation of new technologies and ineffective use of intelligence.
It also raised the possibility of spies infiltrating the military and highlighted the mismanagement of Wazalendo forces, local militiamen who partner with the FARDC.
“Without strong, coordinated and immediate measures, the country is exposed to a generalised internal security crisis with major political, social and economic consequences,” DRC Interior Minister Jacquemain Shabani Lukoo said, according to The Africa Report.
During the Defense and Security Committee meeting, Lukoo said the violence was not confined to eastern DRC and extended to the northwestern North Ubangi province and the Tanganyika province, where Zambian troops support the FARDC. Lukoo bemoaned a proliferation of small arms, corruption among security services, impoverished youths, and inadequate deployment of defense and security forces.
Defense Minister Guy Kabombo Muadiamvita lamented that although the FARDC had received strategic long-range drones and combat air assets, opposing forces had acquired jamming and anti-air capabilities that nullify the military’s weaponry. Muadiamvita called for a new counterterrorism approach that combines information, diplomacy and economic policy with military action.
Success “will only come through a deep reform of the security sector in general and the military defense system in particular,” Muadiamvita said, according to The Africa Report.
The situation remains exacerbated by the nonpayment of a monthly $320 special combat allowance to 18,000 Soldiers. In December, these Soldiers were owed $150 million. As of late April, the money was still unpaid, according to The Africa Report, which added that an additional $5.1 million was approved for war efforts, but that money has not been used.
At the December meeting, Budget Minister Adolphe Muzito disclosed that only 74% of the defense budget’s 7.8 trillion Congolese francs ($3.42 million) was spent last year. Finance Minister Doudou Fwamba reported that 4 million Congolese francs ($1,750) monthly was designated for the Wazalendo, whom the Defense and Security Committee characterized as poorly managed, “disorganized” and “uncontrollable.”
Regarding the Wazalendo, Fwamba noted concerns raised by human rights organizations about “the difficulty of distinguishing disciplined patriots from opportunistic perpetrators of violence,” according to The Africa Report. Like FARDC Soldiers and the M23, the Wazalendo have been accused of raping women and committing other widespread human rights abuses against civilians.
“Formal relations between the Wazalendo and the FARDC cannot be institutionalized,” Fwamba said. He urged operations to evolve “within a system of popular defense governed by rules of engagement and respect for humanitarian law.”
In some parts of South Kivu province, some Walazendo members have defected and formed armed gangs that extort locals, while others have joined the M23, the Fides News Agency reported in April.
According to Lukoo, police personnel levels were insufficient to effectively cover the entire country, and about 12,000 recruits awaited training.
Violence in the DRC continues to expand beyond the embattled eastern frontier. On May 31, Allied Democratic Forces fighters stormed Beni, on the western border with Uganda, and killed at least 15 civilians and one Soldier during the first attack on the town in three years. Survivors reacted with a mixture of confusion and anger.
“Members of my family were killed, but I managed to escape,” one survivor told the France 24 news channel. “We’re asking the government for help. We don’t understand why they massacred us, killed us — just like that.”
Another survivor called for the replacement of military commanders in charge of local operations and intelligence.
“The attack took place at 10 p.m., yet no one came to help us,” the man told France 24.
