Army for the Liberation of Rwanda The Army for the Liberation of Rwanda ( ) was a rebel group largely composed of members of the Interahamwe and Armed Forces of Rwanda that carried out the 1994 Rwandan Genocide . Operating mostly in the eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo along the border with Rwanda , it carried out attacks throughout the Second Congo War against forces aligned with Rwanda and Uganda . In 2000 , the ALiR agreed to merge with the Hutu resistance movement based in Kinshasa into the new Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda ( FDLR ) . ALiR was largely supplanted by the FDLR by 2001 . History . The killing during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide was largely carried out by the national army , the Armed Forces of Rwanda ( FAR ) and the paramilitary Interahamwe . Following the invasion of the Rwandan Patriotic Army ( RPA ) led by Paul Kagame , many FAR and Interahamwe fled across the border into Zaire . During the resulting Great Lakes refugee crisis , these two groups combined into the Army for the Liberation of Rwanda ( ALIR ) . The increased intensity of cross - border attacks by the ALIR led the Rwandan government to secretly arm the ethnically Tutsi Banyamulenge and organize the creation of a proxy rebel group , the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo ( AFDL ) , led by Laurent - Désiré Kabila . The AFDL invaded Zaire in late 1996 in what became known as the First Congo War . The AFDL and their Rwandan and Ugandan allies forced the refugees back into Rwanda and scattering the RDR fighters to countries such as Zambia , Angola , Congo - Brazzaville , the Central African Republic , Chad , Sudan , Burundi and Tanzania . The AFDL continued on to Kinshasa , overthrowing Mobutu Sese Seko and installing Kabila as president in 17 May 1997 . Kabila then announced that the name of the country was being changed from Zaire to the Democratic Republic of the Congo . While Kabila was completing his rebellion , the ALIR remnants reformed and recruited new Hutu fighters from eastern Zaire . Army for the Liberation of Rwanda become active in eastern Zaire by early 1997 . The ALiR ' s political wing , the Party for the Liberation of Rwanda ( PALIR ) , maintained the old goal of overthrowing the Kagame government and regaining power , to which it added the objective of expelling the foreign invaders , thereby giving it more appeal to local populations . There were also concerns that it intended to continue the genocide against the Tutsis . Even before regaining a military presence , a letter allegedly sent by the ALiR threatened to kill the American ambassador to Rwanda and other U . S . citizens in retaliation for support to Rwanda . By July 1998 , the alliance between Kabila and his Rwandan and Ugandan sponsors had broken down . Kabila ordered the foreign forces out of the country , prompting Rwanda and Uganda to create another rebel group , the Rally for Congolese Democracy ( RCD ) , to overthrow Kabila in the Second Congo War . Kabila then began to provide military support to ALiR , many members of which he had tried to kill less than two years previously , in order to weaken the RCD and foreign military forces in eastern Congo . As the war grew into the most deadly conflict since the Second World War , several thousand ALiR fought carried out guerrilla attacks behind the front lines . In 1999 , eight tourists from the U . S . , United Kingdom and New Zealand and a Ugandan game warden were killed while in Uganda ' s Bwindi National Park , along the border with the DRC . The tourists were tracking rare mountain gorilla s and were apparently targeted as English language speakers . One captured French diplomat was released with a message condemning the U . S . and UK for their support of Rwanda . The act of violence largely destroyed Uganda ' s tourist industry for years . For the next several years , the battle lines stabilized and the war stagnated at Uganda and Rwanda competed to extract resources from the rich mines and forests of eastern Congo that they occupied . The ALiR continued to carry out attacks upon both opposing armed groups , as well as civilian populations that they thought supported their enemies . Following Kabila ' s assassination in 18 January 2001 and the rise of his son Joseph , the ALiR consolidated forces with a Kinshasa - based Hutu group to form the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda ( FDLR ) . While never officially disbanded , ALiR lost its separate identity under the FDLR . Despite official declarations from the FDLR that they have given up armed resistance , groups descended from ALiR continue to fight in eastern Congo .