NEWS- The U.N. Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution demanding that the M23 rebels in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo immediately cease hostilities and withdraw from territories they have seized and also threatened sanctions on those who prolong the conflict.
France, which drafted the resolution said it sends a clear message that there is no military solution to the conflict in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
France Ambassador Nicolas de Riviere said that the restoration of dialogue is urgent, with support from mediation at the regional level because the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Democratic Republic of Congo needs to be respected and the priority is to reach an effective, unconditional and immediate ceasefire.
The resolution also calls on the Rwanda Defense Forces to cease their support to the M23 and immediately withdraw from Democratic Republic of Congo territory without preconditions.
United Nations Security Council members accuse the Rwandan Defense Forces of direct support of the M23, but Rwanda has repeatedly denied allegations that it supports the rebels.
The Security Council also strongly urged the the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda to return to diplomatic peacetalks without preconditions as a matter of urgency and to implement their existing commitments under two regional mediations known as the Luanda and Nairobi processes.
Thousands of Rwandan-backed M23 rebels continue to seize territory in the mineral-rich eastern part of the DRC with little resistance from the national army.
Since mid-December, the M23 rebels have focused on the Provinces of North and South Kivu, seizing North Kivu’s capital, Goma, in late January and moving to South Kivu’s capital, Bukavu, on February 14th 2025.
The rebels have also taken control of other important towns, including Masisi, Sake and Nyabibwe, and have established parallel administrations in some of the territories they control.
The Head of the U.N. mission in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo Bintou Keita yesterday said the rebels appear to have their sights set on the capital, Kinshasa.
“Very public declarations and statements by AFC/M23, clearly repeated over time and including last week, show that the intent is to go up to Kinshasa,” Bintou Keita, the U.N. special representative of the secretary-general in the Democratic Republic of Congo, told reporters in briefing from Kinshasa.
“It is our understanding, looking at what is going on in North Kivu, but also the onward push towards South Kivu, and we understand they are pushing a bit further to Tanganyika,” Keita said.
Rwanda alleges that Kinshasa collaborates with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or the FDLR, a Hutu armed group with ties to the perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, an allegation the Democratic Republic of Congo government rejects.
“We believe that any outcome that doesn’t take Rwanda’s security concerns seriously will not offer a sustainable solution to the conflict,” Rwandan Ambassador Ernest Rwamucyo said.
“The security challenges posed by FDLR and its splinter groups are of very serious concern for Rwanda. Democratic Republic of Congo must be held accountable for its continued preservation of FDLR, embedding it in its army, equipping the FDLR with sophisticated weapons and using it as an ally and fighting force.” Ambassador Rwamucho said.
Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been caught up in the fighting and thef U.N. Refugee Agency said that it needs US 40.4 million dollars to assist 275,000 internally displaced people in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and to support a potential influx of 258,000 refugees and returnees going to neighboring countries.
The Democratic Republic of Congo government has officially designated the M23 as a terrorist organization, while the United Nations and the United States classify it as an armed rebel group.
Congolese Ambassador Zenon Ngay Mukongo welcomed the council’s action but said it came late, after weeks of repeated appeals from his government.
“In this particular case, the council’s paralysis gave free rein to the illegal occupation of Democratic Republic of Congo territory by the Rwandan Defense Forces and their supporters in the AFC/M23,” he said, “in the knowledge that every further day of inaction compromises regional and international peace and security, only strengthens the aggressor, and undermines the United Nations’ credibility.”
The United States unilaterally imposed sanctions on a senior Rwandan official Gen James Kabareebe and a spokesperson for a coalition of armed groups that includes the M23 for fueling violence in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
“We applaud similar actions taken by other member states aimed at compelling Rwanda to return to the negotiating table and bring this violence to an end,” U.S. Envoy Dorothy Shea said.
Sierra Leone’s envoy offered a lesson to the parties from his country’s 11-year civil war in the 1990s. Ambassador Michael Kanu said that at some point the parties realized the conflict would not end on the battlefield and that dialogue was the only viable path to sustainable peace.
Additional Reporting from Associated Press
