DR Congo conflict: What is the fighting in Goma about?

The origin of the current fighting can partly be traced back to the genocide in Rwanda in 1994.

About 800,000 people – the vast majority from the Tutsi community – were slaughtered by ethnic Hutu extremists.

The genocide ended with the advance of a force of Tutsi-led rebels commanded by Paul Kagame, who is now president.

Fearing reprisals, an estimated one million Hutus then fled across the border to what is now DR Congo. This stoked ethnic tensions as a marginalised Tutsi group in the east – the Banyamulenge – felt increasingly under threat.

Rwanda’s army twice invaded DR Congo, saying it was going after some of those responsible for the genocide, and worked with members of the Banyamulenge and other armed groups.

After 30 years of conflict, one of the Hutu groups, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), which includes some of those responsible for the Rwandan genocide, is still active in eastern DR Congo.

Rwanda describes the FDLR as a “genocidal militia” and says its continued existence in the DR Congo’s east threatens its own territory.

It accuses the Congolese authorities of working with the FDLR – accusations which DR Congo denies.

Rwanda is unlikely to stay out of DR Congo unless it is satisfied that the FDLR is no longer a threat to itself, or to the Tutsi communities in eastern DR Congo.

However, it is widely accused of using the conflict as a way to profit from eastern DR Congo’s mineral wealth.