The FDLR commander of the most active battalion in North Kivu, Colonel Jean Marie-Vianney Kanzeguhera, aka Colonel Evariste aka Colonel Sadiki was killed by the Congolese Mai-Mai Sheka aka Cheka on Sunday November 20, 2011, sources within MONUSCO tell AfroAmerica Network. The Mai-Mai Sheka killed him during an ambush and in an apparent assassination.
Colonel Sadiki was perhaps the most capable among the FDLR commanders, the only one who had managed to become independent from the general command. According to the same sources, he was commanding an almost autonomous battalion known as “Sadiki Soleil”.
The conflict between Colonel Sadiki and Mai-Mai Sheka stemmed from the massacres of Kibua and Luvungi in August 2010. According to the 2010 report by UN Panel of Experts on the DRC, FDLR and Mai-Mai were once allied and conducted joint military operations: “One of the main joint operations of the armed groups was carried out between 30 July and 2 August, when they looted villages stretching between Kibua and Luvungi. Over the course of those four days, according to the MONUSCO Joint Human Rights Office, more than 300 individuals became victims of sexual violence.”
Pressed by the UN and ICTR and especially after the arrest of FDLR secretary general, Colonel Sadiki and his troops, led by Captain Seraphin Lionceau, arrested those among Mai-Mai Shaka who committed rapes and handed them to authorities. These included especially Sheka’s Chief of Staff Sadoke Kikunda Mayele other Mai-Mai Sheka that operated in the area of Chalingwangwa, Maningwi, and Mutongo, in the zone of Ihana.
Since then, Mai-Mai Sheka had vowed to avenge the perceived betrayal by Colonel Sadiki. The assassination of Colonel Sadiki is believed to be part of the revenge.
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