UN experts: Between 3,000 and 4,000 Rwandan soldiers are in Congo operating with the M23 rebel group

UNITED NATIONS — Between 3,000 and 4,000 Rwandan government forces are deployed in neighboring eastern Congo, operating alongside the M23 rebel group, which has made major advances, UN experts said in a report released Wednesday.

The experts called the Rwandan troop estimate “conservative” and said that their “systematic support and presence” supporting the M23 in its territorial conquest is a sanctionable act and that their deployment is a violation of Congo’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. .

Rwandan forces’ “de facto control and direction over M23 operations also makes Rwanda responsible for M23’s actions,” the panel of experts said in the 293-page report to the UN Security Council.

Eastern Congo has struggled with armed violence while more than 120 groups fight for power, land and valuable mineral resources, while others try to defend their communities. Some armed groups have been accused of mass murders.

President of Congo, Félix Tshisekedi, together with US and UN experts, accused Rwanda of providing military support to the M23. Rwanda denies the allegation, but in February it actually admitted that it has troops and missile systems in eastern Congo to safeguard its security, pointing to a build-up of Congolese forces near the border.

At the root of the current crisis is the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. The carnage began when a plane carrying Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana was shot down, killing the leader, who like most Rwandans was ethnic Hutu. The country’s Tutsi minority was to blame and bands of Hutu extremists began killing them with the support of the Rwandan army, police and militias.

Rwanda’s current president, Paul Kagame, a Tutsi and former opposition military commander, is widely credited with stopping the genocide that killed more than 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus who tried to protect them. Thousands of Hutus fled Rwanda to neighboring eastern Congo.

The M23 rebels are largely ethnic Tutsi Congolese, who became prominent when their fighters seized Goma, the largest city in eastern Congo on the border with Rwanda, in November 2012.

Rwandan Ambassador Ernest Rwamucyo told the Security Council on Monday that Congo and the international community had failed to ensure the protection of Congolese citizens, especially Congolese Tutsis, who he claimed “are being ethnically cleansed by armed groups ”.

He reiterated that the FDLR rebel group – which, according to him, is supported by the highest authorities in Congo and has promised to bring about regime change in Rwanda – continues to be “a threat to Rwanda and the Great Lakes region”. The FDLR is composed mainly of Hutus who oppose Tutsi influence and reportedly includes some Hutus who participated in the genocide in Rwanda.

The expert panel said around 3,000 to 4,000 Rwandan troops in Congo were deployed to three regions of eastern North Kivu – Nyiragongo, Rutshuru and Masisi – when its report was being prepared in April. It stated that the troops were from the 2nd and 3rd military divisions, citing intelligence and security sources close to M23 and the Rwandan military and confidential documents.

Experts stated that Rwandan military interventions and operations in the three territories “were critical to the impressive territorial expansion achieved between January and March 2024”.

The top UN official in Congo, special envoy Bintou Keita, told the council on Monday that she was extremely concerned about the continued and rapid expansion of attacks by the M23 rebel group and its capture of several strategic locations in Congo. east of North Kivu in the last two weeks, and the repercussions in neighboring South Kivu.

She said the violence reached “alarming levels” and risks provoking a wider regional conflict.

The expert panel also stated that “the rapid escalation of the M23 crisis carried the risk of triggering a wider regional conflict”.

One two weeks humanitarian truce It began last Friday in eastern Congo, but there has been no indication that the violence has stopped.

The experts claimed to have documented the proliferation and use of advanced military technology and equipment, mainly from Rwanda, by M23 and Rwandan forces, in violation of the UN arms embargo. He cited short-range air defense systems, drone-borne mortars and 120mm guided mortars that have “precision strike capabilities and high lethality.”

Experts said these advances changed the “dynamics of the conflict”, including the grounding of all Congolese military air assets.

In December, a new political-military movement called the Fleuve Congo Alliance, or AFC, was launched with the aim of uniting armed groups, political parties and civil society against the Congo government. But experts said that the AFC “failed to unite the majority of political and armed actors against the government”.

The panel said Congolese government forces continue to use the Wazelendo group of irregular fighters in North Kivu and the FDLR “as proxies” in the fight against M23 and Rwandan forces, as well as Burundian government forces, which has exacerbated tensions between Rwanda and Burundi.