On February 17, the U.S. State Department condemned Rwanda for backing the violent M23 rebel group in the Democratic Republic of Congo, or DRC.
It said that Rwanda should "immediately withdraw all Rwanda Defense Force personnel from the DRC and remove its surface-to-air missile systems.''
Rwanda rejected the U.S. criticism, saying its forces "are defending Rwandan territory as Congo has launched combat operations near its border." It also accused the Congolese leadership, including President Felix Tshisekedi, of "repeatedly" declaring their intention "to invade Rwanda and change its government by force."
However, in a twist of events, people in DRC are accusing Western countries and the United Nations of supporting the M23 rebels.
On February 20, protests broke out in the DRC capital, Kinshasa, with demonstrators attacking Western embassies. Protesters torched two U.N. vehicles, damaged eight others, and burned American, Belgian and European Union flags.
That same day, African Stream, a pan-African digital media organization, used a digitally altered screenshot of a Reuters report on the situation in DRC to falsely blame the United States for the ongoing violence.
In a post on X, African Stream crossed out selected words in Reuters' original headline — ''US condemns worsening of Eastern DRC violence, accuses Rwanda" — to make it read: ''US causes worsening of Eastern DRC violence, aids Rwanda."
The post accompanying the graphics stated:
''Washington also allegedly uses Rwanda and Uganda as conduits for arms shipments to militia groups in the DRC.''
That is false.
There is no evidence that the U.S. or other Western countries have shipped arms or provided any other type of support to the M23 rebels. There is, however, ample evidence, including a U.N. report, documenting Rwanda's role in creating and aiding M23.
Ambassador Robert Wood, alternate U.S. representative for special political affairs in the U.N., denounced the allegations of U.S. support for M23 during a February 20 U.N. Security Council emergency meeting.
''The United States does not in any way support M23 and has repeatedly and publicly called for the government of Rwanda to end its support to this group," he said.
''The United States has levied multiple sanctions against M23 and its leaders, in addition to supporting U.N. sanctions actions against it."
M23 is a rebel group primarily made up of ethnic Tutsis. Formerly part of the Congolese army, it's named after the March 23, 2009, peace treaty between the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNP) and the DRC government.
In 2012, M23 took control of the city of Goma in DRC's North Kivu province, which borders Rwanda, claiming the peace deal was poorly implemented. The DRC army and U.N. peacekeepers defeated M23, with its surviving combatants fleeing to Rwanda and Uganda.
M23 was dormant for the next decade but reemerged in November 2021 and took control of most of eastern DRC. It claimed it was fighting for the rights of Tutsis and the Congolese and Kinyarwanda-speaking minorities.
The U.S. sanctioned M23 rebels on August 28, 2023, and imposed financial sanctions on four of its senior commanders, a senior commander of the Rwanda Defense Force (RDF) and a senior commander of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The U.S. State Department not only condemned Rwanda but also criticized DRC for arming militia groups to fight alongside its armed forces.
The U.S. urged DRC to "cease cooperation" with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), an armed group that regional bodies and the Congolese government itself has called a "negative force" that poses a risk to the civilian population.
The FDLR fled to Rwanda after that country's 1994 genocide, in which more than 800,000 people, primarily Tutsis, were killed. It is made up of members of the Hutu ethnic group, which was blamed for the mass murder of Tutsis in Rwanda.
Rwanda's Foreign Ministry said the FDLR poses a "threat to Rwandan national security" stemming from the presence in DRC of an armed group whose members include alleged perpetrators of the 1994 genocide.
The ministry said the FDLR "is fully integrated into" the DRC's army.
In a December 15 report, the U.N.'s Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo confirmed that the RDF has been training M23 and fighting alongside its militants on battlefields inside DRC.
M23 fighters were trained at the RDF Military Academy in Gako, Rwanda, from early May to early June 2023, the U.N. experts reported, citing an RDF officer, along with security and intelligence sources.
The U.N. experts obtained aerial footage and photographic evidence of the RDF's direct intervention and reinforcement of troops inside Congo.
The footage was taken in "Masisi, Rutshuru, and Nyiragongo towns, all in the Northern Kivu province, which has become the epicenter of the conflict in recent months," the U.N. report stated.
Eyewitnesses, foreign troops and M23 militia members who were captured or surrendered detailed the RDF's operations inside DRC between February and March 2023, the U.N. experts said.
"According to former M23 combatants and intelligence sources, since early October 2023, RDF soldiers from five different battalions were deployed in Nyiragongo, Rutushuru and Masisi territories," the U.N. experts wrote.
On January 24, 2023, Rwandan forces attacked a Congolese fighter jet, accusing it of flying in its air space.
Rwanda's government spokesperson stated on X:
"Today at 5:03 pm, a Sukhoi-25 from DR Congo violated Rwanda airspace for the third time. Defensive measures were taken. Rwanda asks the DRC to stop this aggression."
The DRC's version of that day's events contradicted Rwanda's account, with its Communications Ministry saying:
"The jet was attacked while it was beginning its landing on the runway of Goma's International Airport."
Human Rights Watch reported in its 2023 country report on DRC that "[a]rmed groups and government forces killed more than 2,000 people" in North Kivu and South Kivu provinces between January and late October 2022.
In recent weeks, the M23 rebels have been closing in on Goma, North Kivu province's capital, causing civilians to flee the area.
According to the U.N., as of last October, 6.9 million people had been displaced in DRC and tens of thousands continue to flee from the violence there.
