(For both openSUSE Leap 42.1 and Tumbleweed)
There is rxvt-unicode setting there in /etc/DIR_COLORS currently:

    #Below, there should be one TERM entry for each termtype that is
colorizable
    ...
    TERM rxvt-unicode
    ...

It's not working for 256color:

    $ echo $TERM
    rxvt-unicode-256color

    $ dircolors -b /etc/DIR_COLORS
    LS_COLORS='';
    export LS_COLORS

The ls command output results without any colors in rxvt-unicode terminal.
Try to add 'rxvt-unicode-256color':

    ...
    TERM rxvt-unicode
    TERM rxvt-unicode-256color
    ...

Then it works, and colors come back. I'm not sure if 'rxvt-16color',
'rxvt-88color' and 'rxvt-256color' need to be added, because I'm using
rxvt-unicode only.