Rwanda, Africa’s eager peacekeeper who promotes instability in neighbouring DRC

The Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have taken the DRC’s eastern cities, and the region’s humanitarian crisis is dire. Why has the West been reluctant to go beyond formulaic criticism of the Rwandan government?

In late January, the Rwanda-backed rebel group March 23 Movement (M23) seized Goma (North Kivu), in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Less than a month later, it captured Bukavu (South Kivu) at the southern end of Lake Kivu. M23 had taken Goma, a large city on the lake’s northern shore, once before, occupying it for nearly two weeks in November 2012 before eventually agreeing to withdraw. After a year of constant fighting, negotiations and international pressure on Rwanda, the rebel group surrendered in November 2013.

This time is different: M23 has held its ground in Goma while continuing to advance, supported by over 4,000 Rwandan troops and a heavy arsenal including armoured tanks, drones and anti-aircraft missiles. Asked if his soldiers were in the DRC, President Paul Kagame said he didn’t know (CNN, 3 February 2025). But the UN Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo had confirmed their involvement in six reports published from 2022 to 2024.

So far, the international response has been limited to reprimands: on 25 January the EU ‘reiterate[d] that Rwanda must cease its support for the M23 and withdraw’. At an emergency meeting the next day, the UN Security Council called for unnamed ‘external forces’ to pull out, while insisting the two countries negotiate. Only Belgium and the UK have condemned the capture of Bukavu and publicly blamed Rwanda, which has continued to violate the international norms that guarantee the DRC’s integrity and sovereignty.

The West’s weak response has aggravated Kivu’s humanitarian crisis – four million displaced since March 2022 and nearly 3,000 killed this year already – and encouraged the contestation of colonial-era borders. This could see not just the Great Lakes region but the whole of Africa drawn into a spiralling conflict. How, despite overwhelming evidence, has Rwanda avoided any real international reaction, especially sanctions, so far applied only to (…)

Full article: 1 805 words.

Erik Kennes & Nina Wilén

Erik Kennes is senior research fellow in the Africa Programme at the Egmont Royal Institute for International Relations and an associate researcher at the Institute of Development Policy (IOB), University of Antwerp; Nina Wilén is director of the Africa Programme at the Egmont Institute and associate professor of political science, Lund University.

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