Rwanda has been criticized by the UN Security Council for supporting an offensive by rebels in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is also being asked to halt support for the M23 armed group.
The UNSC extended the UN’s peacekeeping mission, known as MONUSCO, for a year on Friday, and the resolution was unanimously approved. Rwanda has repeatedly denied involvement in a conflict that has escalated as a result of a broken peace deal that was broken, contrary to overwhelming evidence.
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The UNSC argued that M23’s seizure of the important city of Uvira “risches destabilizing the entire region, seriously endangers civilian populations, and severely limits ongoing peace efforts.”
According to US representative Jennifer Locetta, M23 must leave Uvira for at least 75 kilometers (47 miles) and return to carrying out all of its obligations under the Framework Agreement.
Less than a week after the DRC and Rwandan presidents met in Washington and pledged to reach a peace agreement, M23 captured Uvira in the South Kivu Province on December 10.
“It is a wonderful day for Africa, great day for the world, and great day for these two nations.” And they can’t stop laughing as fighting quickly tore the White House spectacle.
Feza Mariam, a Uvira resident, recently told Al Jazeera, “We don’t know anything about the political process they are talking about.”
“Peace is all we need,” he says. Anyone who can calm us down is welcome here. We as citizens don’t care about it for the rest.
The M23 organization announced on Wednesday that it was leaving the city in response to international criticism, but the DRC government maintained that the M23 forces are still present.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said his government had signed agreements it could hold people to and that commitments made under the Washington accord were still being made on Friday.
According to US officials, between 5, 000 and 7, 000 Rwandan soldiers were reportedly operating in eastern DRC as of early December, despite earlier warnings from the US that it would use the available means to combat those who violated the peace agreement.
Following the seizure of Uvira, the US had previously ordered Rwandan cabinet ministers to be held accountable.
More than 84, 000 people have fled into Burundi since early December, according to the UN refugee agency, which claims the country has reached a “critical point” as refugees arrive exhausted and traumatized. They join roughly 200 000 others who have already sought refuge in the nation.
More than 400 civilians have been killed in the city’s recent violence, according to regional officials.
Concerned about a wider regional spillover is resulted from Uvira’s seizure, which occurs directly across Lake Tanganyika from Bujumbura, Burundi’s largest city. After M23 seized the provincial capital, Bukavu, in February, the DRC government and the Wazalendo, which are DRC-allied militias, had their last significant foothold in South Kivu.
Despite the evaluations of UN experts and the international community, Rwanda has consistently denied backing M23. Despite being the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Rwandan President Paul Kagame claimed in a February interview with CNN that he was unaware that the country’s troops were stationed in the DRC.
In February 2024, Rwanda rebuffed a US request to withdraw troops and surface-to-air missile systems, saying it had changed its self-defence posture. It also rejected this request.
Rwanda asserts that the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, a militia made up primarily of Hutus who fled to the DRC after participating in the genocide that killed about 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus, is a factor in its security concerns.
Kigali accuses the DRC government of supporting the organization and views it as an existential threat.
