This January 2, 2025, 11 years have passed since Colonel Mamadou Ndala, presented as a determined, committed and sincere soldier, was assassinated. He was killed on January 2, 2014, in an ambush on his motorcade while he was on his way to Eringeti (North Kivu).
Mamadou Ndala directed military operations against the Ugandan ADF rebels and all other armed groups active in the Beni region.
Soldiers within the FARDC and a Ugandan ADF rebel were sentenced to death for their role in this assassination.
One of the M23 killers in 2013
Colonel Mamadou Ndala commanded the 42nd commando battalion of the FARDC Rapid Reaction Units. He owes his fame to the exploits of his unit in the fights against the M23.
At the end of August 2013, the M23 launched shells on the city of Goma. But a muscular offensive by the FARDC supported by the MONUSCO intervention brigade had led Mamadou Ndala’s troops to their greatest feat of arms: the conquest of “Three antennas” in the Kibati sector, near Goma.
The battle of Kibati had caused heavy losses to the M23, which had abandoned a large quantity of ammunition and heavy weapons at this front.
After Kibumba, Kiwanja and Rutshuru-centre, the Congolese army seized the Rumangabo base on October 28, 2013, then Bunagana on October 30, 2013.
The commemoration of the 11th anniversary of his assassination comes as the Congolese army is fighting the M23, supported by Rwanda.
Posthumous brigadier general
Colonel Mamdou Ndala was posthumously appointed brigadier general, a few hours before he was buried.
Born on December 8, 1978 in the territory of Wamba, Colonel Mamadou Ndala did his primary education in the locality of Ibambi, located 65 km from Isiro, province of Haut-Uele, where his mother came from.
The young Ndala continued his secondary studies in Isiro, at the Institut les Aiglons, in the Tely district, then at the “Petits Anges” school complex. His childhood friends say he was also an excellent footballer. He notably played within Africa Sport, a local Isiro team, which dissolved a few years ago.
It was in 1997 that he joined the Congolese army. He was promoted to the rank of colonel in 2011. The Congolese public knew him in 2013 during FARDC operations against the M23 rebellion. For many Congolese people, Mamadou Ndala remains the hero of the military victory over the M23 at that time.
General Didier Etumba, then chief of general staff of the FARDC, indicated upon the death of Mamadou Ndala that this death constituted a loss for the army.
