Situation Report: Trouble in Eastern DRC: The Nkunda Factor, Stephanie Wolters

General Laurent Nkunda, who first came to international prominence following accusations of involvement in massacres in Kisangani in 2002, has recently re-emerged as a significant threat to prospects for lasting peace and stability in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Unless this situation is addressed it could have major adverse consequences for the whole of the Great Lakes region. In large part the development of Nkunda’s menace reflects the failure on the part of successive Congolese governments successfully to manage and complete the demobilisation, disarmament and reintegration process1 and to address other specific issues Nkunda has raised. As matters stand, Nkunda continues to defy central army command and conduct his own military operations. This not only threatens to aggravate the serious humanitarian situation in North Kivu, where 160,000 people have been displaced in the last seven months, but has also heightened ethnic tensions between the Congolese Tutsi community and their neighbours in the eastern DRC.