Louis Bidalira

Louis Bidalira (died August/September 2001) was a Congolese rebel leader. A member of the Fuliru people, he joined the Simba rebellion of the 1960s and rose to lead one of the insurgents' units in South Kivu. Like many other regional rebel officers, he became an autonomous warlord and spent much energy quarreling with rival insurgents instead of fighting the Congolese government. After the Simba main armies were defeated in 1965, Bidalira initially continued to lead one of the rebel holdouts and was chosen as the Simba remnants' chief commander. He fled into exile in 1966, and his remaining forces were subsequently destroyed or absorbed by rival rebel groups. Afterward, Bidalira continued to be active in the militant Congolese opposition. He reemerged as a leader of a Mai-Mai militia in the First and Second Congo Wars, and was eventually killed in battle.