DR Congo says handover of 20 alleged Hutu rebels was staged

Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) soldiers are searched by a Rwandan official at the main border crossing between DR Congo and Rwanda in Goma on March 1, 2025, during their repatriation by the M23 movement to Rwanda. [AFP]

The Democratic Republic of Congo's army denied Sunday that 20 fighters linked to the Rwandan genocide had been captured on its territory, calling a video of their handover to Rwanda "faked."

The statement came after the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group in eastern DRC said on Saturday it had captured fighters from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a militia founded by ethnic Hutus who took part in the genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994.