M23 REBELLION OR RWANDAN INVASION?

Here is a Congolese take on M23, the militia responsible for k*lling over 3,000 people and displacing more than 700,000 since January in Goma, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)’s North Kivu province. 

NGO Focus Congo’s (@focuscongo on IG, @focuscongo_drc on X) Pappy Orion (@pappyorion) points to long-available and mounting evidence that the militia is merely a Rwandan proxy, in effect making their campaign a formal invasion by Rwanda. The UN has documented Rwandan troops in Congolese territory and the Rwanda- and Uganda-backed M23’s advanced weaponry.

Perhaps the growth of the Free Congo movement and M23’s recent violent seizure of territory has pressured some of Rwanda’s Western allies to respond. For instance, the US announced sanctions against a Rwandan official and an M23 official, the UK has paused direct bilateral aid, and the European Parliament recommended suspending a minerals agreement and freezing aid.

The consequences of this round of international pressure remain to be seen. Previous sanctions forced the M23 underground in 2012, but the group re-emerged even stronger in 2021. Sanctions could also be merely symbolic, as they have not punished Rwanda’s senior leadership so far.

Since the first Rwandan invasion after the 1994 gen*cide, the three-decade-long, Western-backed proxy war over natural resources had k*lled at least 6 million by 2010 and internally displaced more than 7 million by 2024. 

Once militias push ordinary people off their land, mining operations begin. M23 seized one town, Rubaya, in April 2024, netting the group $800,000 per month by imposing a production tax on mineral extractions.

SOURCES

700,000 displaced

https://reliefweb.int/report/democratic-republic-congo/wfp-flash-report-crisis-eastern-drc-no2-january-2025

3,000 killed in Goma

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/06/africa/dr-congo-goma-violence-deaths-intl-hnk/index.html

UN definition of 'invasion'

http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/instree/GAres3314.html

US sanctions

https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0022

UK pressure

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-statement-on-response-to-the-situation-in-eastern-drc

European parliament recommendation

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20250206IPR26752/meps-want-to-suspend-eu-rwanda-deal-on-critical-raw-materials

2012 international pressure on Kigali

https://apnews.com/article/rwanda-rebels-congo-international-response-1bd498132e780cb9738bd73c60dfec1e

M23's 2021 re-emergence

https://cic.nyu.edu/resources/the-resurgence-of-the-m23-regional-rivalries

Millions killed and displaced

https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/07/1152031

M23 minting close to $1 million a month

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/kagames-hatchet-man-kabarebe-named-by-us-rwandas-liaison-congo-rebels-2025-02-24

Death toll as of 2010

https://www.caritas.org/2010/02/six-million-dead-in-congos-war