The Forces for Renewal (french: Forces du Renouveau), generally still known by its original name RCD-Kisangani-Movement for Liberation (RCD/K-ML), is a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

in the

Democratic Republic of Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

. The party originated as a breakaway faction of the rebel

Rally for Congolese Democracy The Congolese Rally for Democracy (french: Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie; abbreviated RCD), also known as the Rally for Congolese Democracy, is a political party and a former rebel group that operated in the eastern region of the ...

(RCD).

History

The RCD-K-ML was accorded 15 seats in the Transitional National Assembly and participated in the

Transitional Government A provisional government, also called an interim government, an emergency government, or a transitional government, is an emergency governmental authority set up to manage a political transition generally in the cases of a newly formed state or f ...

headed by

Joseph Kabila Joseph Kabila Kabange ( , ; born 4 June 1971) is a Congolese politician who served as President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between January 2001 and January 2019. He took office ten days after the assassination of his father, Pres ...

. Human Rights Watch has accused RCD-K-ML of conscripting child soldiers.CHILDREN ASSOCIATED WITH ARMED FORCES AND GROUPS
, ''The Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict'', 2006-01-31, accessed on 2007-02-11 They were also involved in the

Ituri conflict The Ituri conflict (french: Guerre d'Ituri) is an ongoing conflict between the agriculturalist Lendu and pastoralist Hema ethnic groups in the Ituri region of the north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). While the two groups had ...

. Their leader,

Antipas Mbusa Antipas Mbusa Nyamwisi (born November 15, 1959) is a politician and former rebel leader in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He leads the Forces for Renewal political party and was Minister of Decentralization and Urban and Regional Planning u ...

came eleventh in the

2006 presidential elections Presidential elections were held in Bulgaria on 22 October 2006, as decided on 27 July 2006 by the Bulgarian Parliament. The runoff took place on 29 October 2006, while the electoral campaign spanned 19 September – 20 October. At the election, ...

with 96,503 votes, and won 26 seats in the simultaneous election to the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...

. In the 2011 general election, the Forces for Renewal lost 20 seats in the National Assembly. It won seven out of 108 seats in the indirect elections to the Senate. It joined the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...

Antoine Gizenga Antoine Gizenga (5 October 1925 – 24 February 2019) was a Congolese (DRC) politician who was the Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 30 December 2006 to 10 October 2008. He was the Secretary-General of the Unified Lumum ...

where Mbusa became Foreign Minister. In 2022, the party condemned the violence during the

anti-MONUSCO protests In late July 2022, anti-MONUSCO protests manifested in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The protests were against MONUSCO, the United Nations' peacekeeping force in the country, which has been accused by Congolese politicians and civilians ...

in the eastern DR Congo.

References

2003 establishments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Factions of the Second Congo War Federalism in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Federalist parties Political parties established in 2003 Political parties in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Rebel groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo {{Africa-party-stub