Eugène Serufuli Ngayabaseka

Eugène Serufuli Ngayabaseka (born 1962, Ruruma, Rutshuru, North Kivu, DRCongo) is a Congolese politician, the 2nd Vice President of the Congolese Rally for Democracy-Goma [ [http://www.rcd-congo.info/ RCD official site] , Congolese Rally for Democracy, accessed on 2007-02-24] and was the governor of Nord-Kivu province from July 31, 2000 until 2007, when was succeeded by the RCD-K-ML candidate, Paluku Kahongya Julien. [ [http://rulers.org/cngkprov.html Rulers of Congo(Kinshasa): Provinces] , "Rulers.org", accessed on 2007-02-24] [ [http://www.mediacongo.net/elections/default.asp?actu=495 Résultats provisoires de l'élection des gouverneurs et vice-gouverneurs de province] , "MediaCongo.net", 2007-01-29, accessed on 2007-02-24] [ [http://www.congovision.com/nouvelles/gouverneurs1.html Tableau complet des Gouverneurs et des vice-gouverneurs des 11 Provinces (fr)] , "Congo Vision", 2007, accessed on 2007-02-24]

Serufuli is a Hutu member of the Banyarwanda ethnic minority, who had migrated to Congo from Rwanda over the previous two centuries. He was born in Ruruma, Rutshuru district, North Kivu province. He studied at the Goma Adventist University and worked as an anaethetist at the Goma General Hospital. He was head of the hospital trade union and was an activist in the MAGREVI organisation which campaigned for Banyarwanda rights.

In August 1998 he joined the political board of the RCD and in October 2000, in the middle of the Second Congo War, he was appointed Governor of North Kivu by the Congolese Rally for Democracy. [http://www.ceri-sciencespo.com/themes/re-imaginingpeace/va/country/congo_newforms_jourdan.pdf New forms of political order in North Kivu: The case of the governor Eugene Serufuli] , Luca Jourdan, 2005-12-01, accessed on 2007-02-24] The appointment of a Hutu Banyarwanda was designed to bring them into an alliance with the predominantly Tutsi Banyarwanda led RCD and their Tutsi Rwandan government backers against the anti-Tutsi Army for the Liberation of Rwanda and indigenous Congolese ethnic groups such as the Hunde, Nyanga and Tembo.

In 2003 Serefuli created a "Local Defense Force" militia which was estimated to have numbered around 20,000. Non-government organizations accused him of recruiting children and Rwandan soldiers who had demobbed following the departure of the Rwandan army from DR Congo. [ [http://www.congoned.dds.nl/geheim.html Current situation: Exploitation, arms flows and trends] , "Congo-NED", 2003, accessed on 2007-02-24]

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* [http://www.grandslacs.net/doc/3100.pdf Interview with IRIN in 2004]