Washington says Rwanda’s support for M23 is illegal
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Beto
The US State Department says support for the March 23 Movement by Rwanda’s Ministry of Defence violates commitments under the Washington Accords on peace in the Great Lakes. Washington says its demands will also apply to armed groups that succeed M23, according to a statement by spokesperson Thomas Pigott.
The US State Department described the Rwandan Ministry of Defence’s support for the March 23 Movement (M23) as a violation of Kigali’s commitments in a statement issued on 28 October by its spokesperson Thomas “Tommy” Pigott. Washington accuses thousands of Rwanda Defence Force soldiers of fighting alongside M23 in the provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu, supplying it with weapons and training, as well as surface-to-air missiles and jamming equipment that threaten civil aviation.
The US statement says this support violates the Washington Accords for Peace and Prosperity, signed on 4 December 2025 by the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda under the auspices of President Donald Trump. It demands that Kigali stop supporting M23 and any armed group that succeeds it, and withdraw its forces from eastern DR Congo.
This wording is intended in particular to prevent the rebellion from changing its name. On 12 October in Goma, former Congolese president Joseph Kabila took the lead of the Front for the Refoundation of the Nation (FRN), presented as the successor to the Congo River Alliance. The State Department also said armed groups and their state sponsors must not benefit from the DR Congo’s natural resources.
The statement accompanies US sanctions targeting the Rwandan Ministry of Defence and Zigama Credit and Savings Society, a Rwandan financial institution. It comes after the DR Congo described the Rwanda-AFC-M23 alliance as an external force on 26 October, and as Kinshasa had called for the Washington and Doha commitments to be implemented on 18 October.
