Nkunda's motivations for the conflict were stated as a desire to protect Tutsi people from persecution by Hutus, some of whom had participated in killing Tutsis in the 1994 Rwandan genocide and had fled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to be supported by the government.
Neighbouring locales, such as the town of Dungu in the Orientale Province, had also been struck by violence, with as many as 70,000 people estimated in need of help by the World Food Program.