The US Treasury Department on March 2 imposed sanctions on the Rwanda Defense Force (RDF) and four of its top military officials over their support, training, and fighting alongside M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The RDF have reportedly provided direct operational support to the M23 and its affiliates by introducing advanced military equipment to eastern DRC, including GPS jamming systems, air defense equipment, and drones. According to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the US seeks the immediate withdrawal of RDF troops, weapons and equipment.
Rwanda government officials expressly rejected the sanctions as “unjust and one-sided,” stating:
The sanctions issued today by the United States unjustly targeting only one party to the peace process misrepresent the reality and distort the facts of the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Consistent and indiscriminate drone attacks and ground offensives constitute clear violations of ceasefire agreements by the DRC, and continue to cost many lives. Protecting our country is a badge of honour which the Rwanda Defense Force carries very proudly.
The sanctions come two months after the International Contact Group for the Great Lakes (ICG) issued a joint statement on the escalation of violence in eastern DRC and the new M23 offensive, which Rwanda is charged with having supported. The ICG urged all parties to honor their obligations to protect civilians, uphold commitments under last year’s Washington Accords, and immediately de-escalate the situation.
Armed group M23 has operated in the DRC for well over a decade and has allegedly committed numerous war crimes, including mass rape, during its occupation of Goma in eastern DRC in late 2012. The group is also documented to have forcibly recruited at least 146 young men and boys in the Rutshuru territory of the eastern DRC alone since July 2012, some as young as 15 years old. The actual number of forcibly recruited youth is believed to be far higher.
The UN Security Council has condemned M23 actions and imposed sanctions on parties violating arms, transport and finance rules, as well as political and military leaders of Congolese militias receiving support from outside the DRC.
The RDF actions come despite a joint declaration between the DRC and Rwanda signed late last year as part of a US-backed Regional Economic Integration Framework, to chart a future of mutually beneficial partnerships, greater connectivity with international development initiatives, and investment opportunities across sectors, including in mining, infrastructure, industrial development, and national park management.
From JURIST, March 3. Used with permission. Internal links added.
Photo: US Air Force via Wikimedia Commons
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DRC and Rwanda announce de-escalation measures
Representatives from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda on March 18 agreed to a series of coordinated steps to de-escalate tensions and advance progress towards peace in the region, according to a joint statement released by the US State Department.
According to the statement, the two countries committed to concrete steps toward implementing the Washington Accords, the peace framework both countries signed last December. The agreement calls for Rwanda to disengage its forces from defined areas in DRC territory, and for the DRC to make efforts to neutralize the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).
DRC and M23 announce de-escalation measures
The Congolese government and the M23 rebel group have agreed to facilitate humanitarian aid access and release prisoners as part of confidence-building measuresdiscussed in Switzerland via Qatari mediators. Backed by Rwanda, the M23 has led an insurgency since 2021, displacing millions of people across the eastern Kivu provinces. (TNH)
Emergency Ebola response ramps up in DRC
A large-scale response has begun to an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that went undetected for two months, and is already one of the biggest on record. The epidemic involves the extremely rare Bundibugyo variant, for which there have been only two past outbreaks and are no approved vaccines or treatments. World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus fast-tracked a May 17 declaration of a public health emergency of international concern, and treatment centres are now being set up, isolation tents installed in hospitals, and medical supplies shipped to the outbreak zone.
The DRC has contained 16 previous Ebola outbreaks and has world-leading expertise, but the epidemic is unfolding in conflict-affected areas, which—amid global aid cuts and a fraught political situation—could complicate the response. The first Ebola flare-up to unfold in an active conflict zone, in North Kivu between 2018 and 2020, became the second-worst outbreak in history.
With 160 deaths already suspected in the latest Ebola outbreak, a new report from the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board—a body set up eight years ago in the wake of the West Africa Ebola epidemic—paints a bleak picture of the world’s readiness to face pandemics. The report concludes that the past decade of public health emergencies shows that “the world is not substantially safer from their impact, with rising economic and social costs, weakening access to medical countermeasures, declining financing, and societies emerging poorer, more unequal and more divided.”
The GPMB argues that outbreaks are becoming more frequent and more disruptive, driven by climate change, urbanisation, and weakening international cooperation. Reforms, including those introduced after COVID-19, are not keeping pace with the rising risk, and the GPMB points to a “profound erosion of trust and unresolved inequities” in access to healthcare and vaccines as key vulnerabilities. During the recent mpox outbreaks, for example, vaccines took 24–27 months to reach people in affected low-income countries, even more time than the 17 months it took during COVID-19. (TNR)