In accordance with paragraph 2 (g) of the Guidelines for the conduct of its work, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1533 (2004) concerning the Democratic Republic of the Congo makes accessible a narrative summary of reasons for the listing for individuals, groups, undertakings and entities included in its sanctions list.
Leopold Mujyambere was listed on 3 March 2009 pursuant to the criteria set out in paragraph 4 of resolution 1857 (2008).
Leopold Mujyambere was Commander of the Second Division of FOCA, the armed branch of the FDLR. As military leader of a foreign armed group operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he impeded the disarmament and the voluntary repatriation and resettlement of combatants, in violation of Security Council resolution 1857 (2008) OP 4 (b). In evidence collated by the UNSC DRC Sanctions Committee Group of Experts, detailed in its report of 13 February 2008, girls recovered from FDLR-FOCA had previously been abducted and sexually abused. Since mid-2007, FDLR-FOCA, which previously recruited boys in their mid to late teens, has been forcefully recruiting youth from the age of 10 years. The youngest are then used as escorts, and older children are deployed as soldiers on the frontline, in violation of Security Council resolution 1857 (2008) OP4 (d) and (e).
In June 2011, he was the FOCA Commander of the South Kivu operational sector, then called “Amazon”. He was later promoted to FOCA Chief of Staff, and then acting Deputy Commander in 2014. He was captured in Goma, DRC by Congolese security services in early May 2016 and transferred to Kinshasa.