In the West, which has not taken any financial or other measures against Kigali, there are calls to cease hostilities and initiate a dialogue between warring parties.
The West’s reaction
In a conversation with Rwandan President Paul Kagame on January 28, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that “the United States is deeply concerned about the escalation of the conflict” and called for “a ceasefire and the parties’ respect for the territorial integrity of states”.
Responsible Statecraft further notes that France has taken a tougher stance on this issue. Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot spoke bluntly, saying that “France strongly condemns the M23 offensive with the support of the Rwandan armed forces” and intends to submit a resolution on this issue to the UN Security Council.
While the African Union was meeting in Addis Ababa and once again expressing its fears that the DRC, torn apart by years of conflict, could disintegrate, convoys of M23 militants in an alliance with Rwandan troops entered the capital of South Kivu province, Bukavu, home to more than a million people, on February 16 almost without resistance, reports France 24.
Despite the fact that at this African summit the Congolese-Rwandan conflict was in the spotlight, African leaders nevertheless did not take effective measures against the M23 or Rwanda, which has the most combat-ready army in the region, the French news channel AfricaNews notes. Most of them continued to call for a ceasefire and dialogue between the DRC government and the rebels.
Only three weeks later, on February 21, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution drafted by France, which “strongly condemns the ongoing M23 offensive in the provinces of North and South Kivu with the support of the Rwandan Defense Forces” and demands that the group cease hostilities and return to negotiations to resolve the conflict.
At the same time, it condemns the support provided by Congolese troops to the FDLR group and demands that Kinshasa fulfill its obligations to neutralize it.
This UN Security Council resolution was adopted a day after the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions against James Kabarebe, Minister of State for Regional Integration of Rwanda, and several M23 leaders playing “key roles” in the conflict.
The ministry’s statement notes that former general Kabarebe is “the person in the government who coordinates the supply of minerals extracted by mining enterprises in the DRC to Rwanda for their subsequent re-export to the world market”.
Rwanda, one of the crisis’ main beneficiaries
It cannot be ruled out that this step by the Americans, writes Al Jazeera, was taken after Kinshasa accused the US technology giant Apple of violating the legal supply chains of tin, tungsten, tantalum, and gold, which are classified as “conflict minerals.” The DRC filed lawsuits against Apple’s subsidiaries in France and Belgium in December, 2024, which use metals extracted in the DRC and smuggle them through Rwanda to the world market.
According to UN data, rebel organizations operating in the eastern regions of the DRC smuggled at least 150 tons of coltan into Rwanda last year, leading to the largest-ever contamination of the mineral supply chain in the Great Lakes region of Africa. This process began to gain momentum following the capture of the Rubaya area by M23 militants in April last year, where one of the world’s largest deposits of coltan, a strategic mineral, is located.
In this regard, Kigali reacted to the sanctions against its minister, James Kabarebe, by calling them “unjustified and illegal.” Rwandan President Paul Kagame warned in mid-February that if sanctions were introduced against him personally, “he will spit in the face of those who do it”.
Such a statement can only be explained by the fact that Kigali has been plundering the DRC’s mineral resources, especially rare earths, with impunity for many years, taking advantage of the weakness of the central government in Kinshasa, especially in the northeastern regions.
According to the US African Center for Strategic Studies, Rwanda plays the main role in organizing the illegal trafficking of these rare earth metals, which is estimated at $1 billion per year.
At the same time, notes the Robert Lansing Institute, the Rwandan authorities explained the presence of their military bases in the DRC’s eastern regions by the need to take preventive measures against the FDLR based here, which includes the alleged perpetrators of the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda in 1994 from among the Hutu military. In addition, according to Kigali, the main goal of this organization, which, according to the publication, is used by Kinshasa in the fight against Kigali, is to seize power in Rwanda.
In the latest UN investigation conducted in June, 2024, the US African Center for Strategic Studies emphasizes that Rwanda and Uganda are directly named as key sponsors of the M23. Moreover, the direct entry of the Rwandan Defense Forces into the M23 units was noted.
Ugandan policy of double standards
As for Uganda, its leadership has two faces in this conflict. Despite the fact that relations between Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and his neighbor Paul Kagame have been tense for a long time, recently, according to Foreign Policy, Ugandan army commander Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Museveni’s son, began to call Paul Kagame his “political mentor.” According to the UN, Ugandan officers have been providing logistical support to the M23 since 2023, and its political wing has often held meetings in Uganda.
On the other hand, the Ugandan army continues to conduct military operations together with the Congolese against the rebels of the United Democratic Forces, a jihadist organization fighting against the government in Kampala, who were ousted from Ugandan territory and are now based in the north-east of the DRC.
Immediately after the capture of the cities of Goma and Bukavu by the M23, Uganda announced the deployment of several thousand more of its soldiers to Ituri province, ostensibly to strengthen the fight against them. But, as the Defense Post notes, this was a desire to take advantage of the current situation so as to grab their part of the pie and not let all the eastern regions of the DRC fall under Rwandan control.
Foreign Affairs believes that this was just a kind of hint from Kigali that this territory is the sphere of Ugandan influence, the “backyard” of Uganda, rich in valuable minerals—which are also of great interest to it.
The main point of contention underlying the geopolitical confrontation between the DRC, Rwanda, and Uganda, according to the Robert Lansing Institute, is Congolese gold. Despite small reserves, its share in Rwanda’s exports, according to the American Daily Kos website, increased from 1% in 2014 to 47% in 2020.
A similar situation can be seen in Uganda, where the share of gold in exports in 2021 was 56% (there is an absence of new statistics).
According to All Africa, over the past decade, Uganda has gained notoriety as the “epicenter of gold laundering in Africa.” Nine refineries have been licensed in the country to process it, and they are free from the “conflict mineral label.” After these processes, it is exported abroad.
In a UN Security Council document on the situation in the DRC, the Presidents of Rwanda and Uganda, Paul Kagame and Yoweri Museveni, were explicitly called the “godfathers” of plundering Congolese mineral resources.
The MONUSCO UN peacekeeping force has been in place for more than 20 years and is one of the most expensive and sizeable UN missions in history, numbering, according to Al Jazeera, 12,379 military personnel and about 5,000 civilian personnel, with an annual budget of about $1.1 billion. It proved to be so utterly ineffective in maintaining stability and ensuring the population’s security that the DRC President Tshisekedi demanded the mission’s withdrawal. In December 2023, the UN Security Council decided to withdraw it from the country in December, 2024, one year ahead of the expiration of its mandate, yet it remains in place.
Viktor Goncharov, Africa expert, PhD in Economics
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