The US on Monday said that it was imposing sanctions on Rwanda’s military, taking action against a longtime partner it accused of breaching a peace agreement in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo).
The mineral-rich east of DR Congo has seen decades of conflict, but violence flared last year when the Rwandan-backed M23 group made huge gains, capturing strategic mines and towns, and displacing thousands of people. US President Donald Trump in December last year brought together the leaders of Rwanda and the DR Congo to sign a peace deal, predicting a “great miracle,” but just days afterward, the US Department of State said that the M23 captured the key Congolese city of Uvira.
The US said that it was imposing sanctions against the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) and four officers, including the army chief of staff Vincent Nyakarundi, saying they were critical to M23 gains.
Photo: Reuters
“M23, a US and UN-sanctioned entity, is responsible for horrific human rights abuses, including summary executions and violence against civilians, including women and children,” state department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement.
“The continued backing from the RDF and its senior leadership has enabled M23 to capture DR Congo sovereign territory and continue these grave abuses,” the statement said.
Trump had earlier sounded positive about working with Rwandan President Paul Kagame, a veteran leader who has been willing to take in migrants deported from the US, a top political goal for Trump.
The peace deal had also been hailed by Trump as a way to secure critical minerals from the DR Congo.
The sanctions would block any assets that the RDF or the four officers hold in the US and criminalize any financial transactions with them.
In a separate statement, US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said the US expected “the immediate withdrawal of Rwanda Defence Force troops, weapons and equipment.”
“Thousands of RDF troops are deployed across eastern DR [Congo], where they actively engage in combat operations and facilitate M23’s control of territory,” the statement added.
Rwanda said the US sanctions were “unjustly targeting only one party” and “misrepresent the reality and distort the facts of the conflict.”
It said “consistent and indiscriminate drone attacks and ground offensives constitute clear violations of ceasefire agreements by the DR [Congo].”
The Congolese government expressed its “deep appreciation” of the US, calling the sanctions “a clear signal of support” for the respect of its “sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Rwanda says it is only involved in the eastern DR Congo to help protect against an enemy militia formed from the remnants of those who committed the 1994 Rwandan genocide of the Tutsis, denying direct military involvement, despite considerable evidence from UN observers and others.
In turn, it has demanded that the Congolese government clamp down on Hutu militants from the genocide, who targeted ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
Outmatched on the ground by the better-equipped M23 and Rwandan troops, Kinshasa’s forces have relied in part on US pressure on Kigali to stabilize the front line, regional specialists and security sources said.
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