{"id":500883,"date":"2026-03-03T08:43:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T08:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/500883\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T08:43:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T08:43:11","slug":"us-sanctions-rwandan-army-and-top-officials-for-supporting-m23-in-drc-conflict-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/500883\/","title":{"rendered":"US sanctions Rwandan army and top officials for supporting M23 in DRC | Conflict News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kinshasa welcomed the sanctions while Kigali said the US move \u2018unjustly\u2019 targets Rwanda.<\/p>\n

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The United States has imposed sanctions on Rwanda\u2019s military and four of its top officials for \u201cdirect operational support\u201d of the M23 rebel group that has seized large swaths of territory in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).<\/p>\n

Rwanda has long rejected allegations from DRC, the United Nations and \u2060Western powers that it backs M23 and its affiliated Congo River Alliance (AFC), which captured key cities in the mineral-rich east, including the capitals of North and South Kivu provinces last year.<\/p>\n

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The US Department of the Treasury said on Monday that the rebels\u2019 gains would not have been possible without Rwandan backing.<\/p>\n

The US State Department separately added that M23 continued to capture territory even late last year \u201cin clear violation\u201d of a US-mediated agreement.<\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump in December brought together the leaders of Rwanda and the DRC to sign a peace deal<\/a>, predicting a \u201cgreat miracle\u201d.<\/p>\n

But just days afterwards, the State Department noted, the M23 captured the key Congolese city of Uvira<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Treasury Department said those included in Monday\u2019s sanctions are Vincent Nyakarundi, the Rwandan Defence Force (RDF) army chief of staff; Ruki Karusisi, a major-general; Mubarakh Muganga, chief of defence staff; and Stanislas Gashugi, special operations force commander.<\/p>\n

The US said they were critical to M23\u2019s gains.<\/p>\n

\u201cM23, a US- and UN-sanctioned entity, is responsible for horrific human rights abuses, including summary executions and violence against civilians, including women and children,\u201d State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe continued backing from the RDF and its senior leadership has enabled M23 to capture DRC sovereign territory and continue these grave abuses,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u2018A strong signal\u2019<\/p>\n

Rwandan government spokesperson Yolande Makolo said in a statement that the sanctions \u201cunjustly\u201d target Rwanda and \u201cmisrepresent the reality and distort the facts of the conflict\u201d in eastern DRC.<\/p>\n

She accused DRC of violating the peace agreement by allegedly conducting \u201cindiscriminate\u201d drone attacks and ground offensives.<\/p>\n

Rwanda\u2019s government also told the Reuters news agency that Kigali was \u201cfully committed to disengagement of its forces in tandem with the DRC implementing their obligations\u201d under US-led mediation, but accused DRC of failing to keep promises such as ending support for militias.<\/p>\n

The Congolese government, however, said it welcomed the sanctions, describing them as \u201ca strong signal in support of respect\u201d for its territorial integrity and \u2060sovereignty.<\/p>\n

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement that the department \u201cwill use all tools at its disposal to ensure that the parties to the Washington Accords uphold their obligations\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expect the immediate withdrawal of Rwanda Defence Force troops, weapons and equipment,\u201d Bessent said.<\/p>\n

Fighting continues in eastern DRC on several fronts, despite the accord signed between Kigali and Kinshasa in Washington, and a separate peace deal signed between M23 and the Congolese government in Qatar<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n

Though M23 later pulled out of Uvira under US pressure, the rebels still hold other key Congolese cities, including Goma and Bukavu. The US Treasury Department said on Monday that M23\u2019s continued presence near Burundi\u2019s border \u201ccarries the risk of escalating the conflict \u200cinto a broader regional war\u201d.<\/p>\n

M23 is the most prominent of about 100 armed factions vying for control in eastern DRC, near the border with Rwanda. The conflict has created one of the world\u2019s most significant humanitarian crises, with more than seven million people displaced, according to the UN agency for refugees.<\/p>\n

M23 are already under US sanctions since 2013.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kinshasa welcomed the sanctions while Kigali said the US move \u2018unjustly\u2019 targets Rwanda. Listen to this article\u00a0|\u00a04 mins…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[1926,23,50500,1127,86525,4379,3,111,69155,21,19,22,20,25,1209,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-500883","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-armed-groups","11":"tag-conflict","12":"tag-democratic-republic-of-the-congo","13":"tag-military","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-rwanda","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-us-canada","23":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}