Esperance mudenge

Prior to his appointment on June 12, 2024, Minister Nduhungirehe served as Ambassador of Rwanda to the Netherlands from 2020 to 2024, Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, in charge of the East African Community from 2017 to 2020, and Ambassador of Rwanda to Belgium from 2015 to 2017.

From August 2010 to May 2015, Amb. Nduhungirehe was the First Counsellor, then Minister Counsellor and Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN in charge of the UN Security Council, in New York (2010-2015).  He previously held the position of First Counsellor at the Embassy of Rwanda in Ethiopia from 2007 to 2010. 

Amb. Nduhungirehe holds a Master’s degree in Tax Management from the Solvay Business School of the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB, Belgium) and a Bachelor’s degree of Law from the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL, Belgium). He fluently speaks Kinyarwanda, French and English.

This Usalama Project briefing presents a concise biography of the M23’s senior commander, Sultani Makenga, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It describes his rise through the ranks, his earlier membership of the Rassemblement congolais pour la démocratie (RCD) and the Congrès national pour la défense du people (CNDP), and his relationship with the current Rwandan Defence Minister, James Kabarebe.

Read the full briefing below or download as a PDF.

About the author

Jason Stearns is Director of Studies of the RVI Great Lakes Course. He is author of Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: the collapse of the Congo and the great war of Africa (2011). He is the former Coordinator of the UN Group of Experts on the DRC.

Key points

• Sultani Emmanuel Makenga is military commander of the M23 rebel group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• His family is from the Mugogwe sub-group of the Tutsi community; he grew up near the border with Uganda and Rwanda.
• Integrated into the Congolese armed
  •

  James Kabarebe

  Rwandan military officer (born 1959)

  James Kabarebe (born 1959) is a Rwandan retired military officer who serves as Minister of State for Regional Integration in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

  Kabarebe was a key figure in both the First Congo War and the Second Congo War as a commanding officer.^[1]

  From 10 April 2010 until 18 October 2018, he was the Rwandan Minister of Defence. He served as a Rwandan Patriotic Army Commander and was an Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo strategist.^[2] In his role of Minister of Defence he was accused of being the de facto leader of the March 23 Movement, a militia in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.^[3]

  In September 2023, James Kabarebe was appointed Minister of State for Regional Cooperation.^[4]

  Early life and education

  James Kabarabe was born in 1959. Raised in Ibanda western Uganda, he had his early primary education at Kyamate Primary School in western Uganda and attended O-level secondary education at Kabalega Secondary School in