U.N. experts say they have “solid evidence” that members of Rwanda’s armed forces are conducting operations in volatile eastern Congo in support of the M23 rebel group, which is waging a major offensive in the mineral-rich region that has caused deaths and massive displacement of civilians.
By Associated Press
Aug. 4, 2022
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By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.N. experts say they have “solid evidence” that members of Rwanda’s armed forces are conducting operations in volatile eastern Congo in support of the M23 rebel group, which is waging a major offensive in the mineral-rich region that has caused deaths and massive displacement of civilians.
In a new report to the U.N. Security Council, obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, the experts accused Rwanda’s forces of violating a U.N. arms embargo against Congo by their “direct intervention” into the country, either to support the M23 group or to conduct military operations against another armed rebel group, the FDLR.
Rwandan military members also violated sanctions by providing weapons, ammunition and uniforms to M23 rebels, the group of experts said.
Relations between Congo and its smaller neighbor Rwanda have been fraught for decades. Rwanda alleges that Congo gave refuge to the ethnic Hutus who carried out the 1994 Rwandan genocide that killed at least 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, a Tutsi, is widely credited with stopping the genocide.
MoreCongo has accused Rwanda of supporting the M23, mainly comprising Congolese Tutsis, which Rwanda has long denied. And Rwanda has accused Congo of supporting the FDLR, a Hutu rebel group opposed to Tutsi influence, which Kinshasa denies.
The experts’ report comes at a time of worsening security in eastern Congo that led to a meeting between Rwanda’s Kagame and Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi in Angola’s capital, Luanda, on July 6 and agreement to revive a Congo-Rwanda commission. A statement issued afterwards called for a return to normal diplomatic relations between Kinshasa and Kigali, a cessation of hostilities, and the “immediate and unconditional withdrawal” of the M23 rebel group from its positions in eastern Congo.