The US accused Rwanda on Friday of driving instability and edging the region closer to war, as an advance by the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group in eastern DRC threatened to undermine President Donald Trump’s peace efforts.
“Rwanda is leading the region towards increased instability and war,” US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz told the Security Council. “We will use the tools at our disposal to hold to account spoilers to peace.”
The latest M23 gains have brought the conflict to the border of Burundi, whose troops have long operated in eastern DRC, heightening fears of a wider spillover. Fighting has already killed thousands of people and displaced hundreds of thousands since January.
Waltz urged Rwanda to honour its commitments and recognise the DRC government’s right to defend its territory, including its decision to invite Burundian forces. He said Washington was pressing all sides to show restraint and avoid further escalation, including refraining from hostile anti-Tutsi rhetoric.
M23 says it is fighting to protect ethnic Tutsi communities in eastern DRC. Its recent advance, in an area rich in minerals, comes a week after Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame met Trump in Washington, where both reaffirmed support for a US-brokered peace deal.
“The United States is profoundly concerned and incredibly disappointed with the renewed outbreak of violence in the eastern DRC,” Waltz said.
He told the council that Rwanda has exercised strategic control over M23 and its political wing, the Congo River Alliance, or AFC, since the group resurfaced in 2021.
“Kigali has been intimately involved in planning and executing the war in eastern DRC, providing military and political direction to M23 forces and AFC for years now,” Waltz said. He added that Rwanda’s defence forces have supplied logistics, materiel and training, and have fought alongside M23 in DRC with an estimated 5,000 to 7,000 troops as of early December.
Rwanda denies supporting M23 and instead accuses Congolese and Burundian forces of provoking the renewed fighting.
M23 is not part of the Washington-mediated talks and is instead engaged in a separate negotiation track with the DRC government hosted by Qatar.