André Kisase Ngandu

André Kisase Ngandu (died January 1997) was a Congolese rebel leader. An insurgent in the Simba rebellion of the 1960s, he immigrated to East and later West Germany where he lived for many years. He resumed his rebel activity with Ugandan support in the 1990s and emerged as leader of the National Council of Resistance for Democracy (CNRD) which waged an insurgency in eastern Zaire (present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo).

In 1996, he agreed to unite his force with other opposition factions, forming the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (AFDL), becoming one of its main commanders. A Congolese nationalist, Kisase wanted to overthrow not just Zairian dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, but also make the AFDL a force independent of foreign influence. The latter stance resulted in him falling into disfavor with Rwanda, one of the AFDL's main supporters. The Rwandans and Kisase's main rival within the AFDL, Laurent-Désiré Kabila, probably arranged his murder in rural eastern Zaire in January 1997.

Biography Early life, Simba rebellion, and CNRD insurgency Kisase fought against Joseph-Desire Mobutu (pictured 1960), the later Mobutu Sese Seko, since the 1960s. An ethnic Tetela, Kisase was born around the 1940s. A Congolese National Security document described him as the "little brother" of Nicholas Olenga. He took part in conflicts of the Congo Crisis in the 1960s, fighting as an insurgent in the Simba rebellion and rising to the rank of captain in the Simba forces. Meanwhile, Olenga became one of the Simbas' chief commanders. In 1965, the Simba uprising was mostly crushed by Armée Nationale Congolaise (ANC) troops commanded by Mobutu who consequently took power in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as dictator, eventually renaming it "Zaire". President Museveni recommended Kisase as one of the potential leaders of said force to Paul Kagame, the leading statesman of Rwanda. 7, or 8 January. His body and that of a bodyguard were later found at a road near Goma. Based on the account of a rebel officer, The Washington Post stated that he was shot by "Rwandan Tutsi troops".

Kisase's family was still living in Germany as of the early 2000s.