Rwanda is facing international backlash to support Dr. Congo’s M23 rebels, which denies.
The US Treasury has imposed sanctions on ministers of the Rwandan government and senior members of the armed groups due to their suspicious role in conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Eastern Congo (DRC). A massive escape to Burundi.
The US Treasury said on Thursday that Rwanda’s Minister for Regional Integration James Kabalebe had been targeted as being “the heart of Rwandan support” for the M23 armed group.
US sanctions have also targeted Lawrence Cannuca Kingston, a senior member and spokesman for the Congo River Alliance, including M23, and two companies he manages in the UK and France.
In a statement, the Treasury said two individuals and two entities in the DRC were “involved in violence and human rights abuses.” “Today’s actions underscore the need for Rwanda to return to negotiations based on the Angola-led Luanda process to achieve conflict resolution in the Eastern DRC,” he added.
There were no immediate comments from Rwanda. This denies accusations from the United Nations, the United States, and several other countries that support the M23 militarily.
Rwanda accused the DRC of protecting the FDLR, an armed group created by Hutus, who participated in the Tuttis massacre during the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
The DRC government has accused Rwanda of being an “expandist ambition” and says it is stealing a huge amount of minerals. In a report (PDF) released last month, UN experts said that the rebels in the Eastern DRC illegally exported to Rwanda to 150 tonnes of Koltan in 2024.
Germany summons ambassador
Germany separately said Thursday that it was summoning Berlin’s Rwandan ambassador to protest the advancement of the eastern DRC’s M23.
“The Rwanda-backed M23 militia continues to attack in the Eastern DRC. Rwanda must respect the integrity of the DRC [and] Germany’s federal foreign ministry said on social media platform Bluesky. “We strongly condemned the violation of international law and summoned the Rwandan ambassador.”
The ministry also said that the DRC government in Kinshasa should “speak with M23” and “take Rwanda’s legitimate security interests seriously.”
The UN Refugee Agency said the DRC conflict caused Burundi’s biggest influx of refugees in 25 years.
“People are still poured into thousands of people every day,” Burundi’s UNHCR president Bridget Mukanga Eno said at a press conference Wednesday.
The Rwandan-backed fighter jets have made great profits in the Eastern DRC, seizing the cities of Goma and Bukabu, screaming for fear of the region’s huge fires.
The United Nations Human Rights Office, OHCHR, confirmed Tuesday that the M23 fighter jets had executed a summary of the children after they entered Bukabu last week.
He said some of the rebels were minors too.
“We also recognize that children own weapons,” said Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesman for Ohchr. “We will call Rwanda and the M23 to ensure that human rights and international humanitarian law are respected.”
Reported from Bukab, Al Jazeera’s Alan Uikani said Red Cross staff were gathering bodies for the mass burial. “It’s very difficult to know the identity of the people killed here, but the Red Cross has confirmed that the children are among the victims,” he said.
Uaykani added that the M23 denied responsibility and instead fixed the killing of the Congolese forces.
Source link
