The FDLR Chief of Staff, General Leodomir Mugaragu was killed on Wednesday night January 11, 2012 by a military commando, believed to be from Rwanda but working with and under the cover of Congolese Local Defense Forces known as Mai-Mai Guides, sources within MONUSCO tell AfroAmerica Network. The commando killed him inside his residence in an apparent assassination after infiltrating the FDLR defensive lines in Walikale and Masisi, Kivu, Easten Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
General Mugaragu was viewed as one of the top four leaders of the Forces Combattantes Abacunguzi (FOCA), the armed wing of the FDLR. A career officer trained in the best military academies in Europe, he was viewed as one of the best ex-FAR commanders during the 1990-1994 Rwandan civil war. He fled Rwanda in 1994, after the current Rwandan Defense Forces, then the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) defeated the Rwandan government forces, FAR, with the help of Ugandan, Erythrean, and Ethiopian armies.
The targeted assassination of General Mugaragu follows that of another FDLR commander, Colonel Sadiki in November 2011 (see our article here).
General Mugaragu was among the FDLR officers facing the UN Security Council sanctions.
According to MONUC sources, the assassination of General Mugaragu may be a turning point for the FDLR and Eastern Congo.
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