Laurent Nkunda (or
Laurent Nkundabatware Mihigo (birth name), or
Laurent Nkunda Batware, or as he prefers to be called
The Chairman; born February 2, 1967) is a former
General in the
Armed Forces of the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and is the former
warlord (leader of a rebel faction) operating in the province of
Nord-Kivu, sympathetic to Congolese
Tutsis and the Tutsi-dominated government of neighbouring
Rwanda. Nkunda, who is himself a Congolese Tutsi, commanded the former DRC troops of the 81st and 83rd Brigades of the
DRC Army. He speaks
English,
French,
Swahili,
Kinyarwanda,
Lingala and
Kinande. On January 22, 2009, he was put under house arrest in Gisenyi when he was called for a meeting to plan a joint operation between the Congolese and Rwandan militaries.