The United States (U.S.) has imposed sanctions on the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) for its support of M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a move which may affect Rwandan soldiers providing security in Mozambique.
The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on 2 March announced that it had imposed sanctions on the RDF and four of its senior officials for actively supporting, training, and fighting alongside the March 23 Movement (M23), “a US- and United Nations (UN)-sanctioned armed group responsible for human rights abuses and a mass displacement crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo”.
The Treasury said the RDF has supported M23 as it seized territory in eastern DRC, including provincial capitals Goma and Bukavu, along with strategic mining sites in eastern DRC. “M23’s offensives would not have been possible without the active support and complicity of the RDF and key senior officials.”
Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said he expected the immediate withdrawal of Rwanda Defence Force troops, weapons, and equipment from the DRC.
“Days after President Donald J Trump hosted DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame [on 4 December 2025] for the signing of the Joint Declaration on the Washington Accords for Peace and Prosperity (“the Washington Accords”), M23 captured Uvira, a strategic city located along the DRC-Burundi border,” the Treasury noted. “This military offensive resulted in civilian deaths and forced thousands of residents to flee their homes. Despite its subsequent exit from Uvira, M23’s continued presence near the border with Burundi—and the RDF’s continued support for M23—carries the risk of escalating the conflict into a broader regional war.”
RDF ‘supporting armed rebellion in eastern DRC’
The Rwanda Defence Force has provided direct operational support to M23 and its affiliates, the Treasury stated. “The RDF has introduced advanced military equipment to the battlefield in eastern DRC, including GPS jamming systems, air defence equipment, drones, and additional materiel. Thousands of RDF troops are deployed across eastern DRC, where they actively engage in combat operations and facilitate M23’s control of territory. The RDF also provides training to M23 fighters at RDF military centres and supports its recruitment efforts, including the recruitment of refugees.”
“With support from the RDF, M23 has engaged in extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, and torture. In January 2025, the RDF carried out attacks against Congolese armed forces, the Southern African Development Community Mission in the DRC, and defensive positions of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC. In exchange for its support for M23, Rwanda has gained access to mineral-rich areas of eastern DRC that contribute to the financing of M23’s armed rebellion,” the Treasury explained.
As a result, the RDF is being designated responsible for threatening the peace, security, and stability of the DRC, and for supporting M23. The four individuals named in the Treasury sanctions are Vincent Nyakarundi, Army Chief of Staff; Ruki Karusisi, a major general and commander of the RDF’s 5th Infantry Division; Mubarakh Muganga, the RDF’s Chief of Defence Staff; and Stanislas Gashugi, the RDF’s Special Operations Force Commander.
The sanctions freeze any assets held in the US by the RDF or the four officers, and prevent US individuals and entities from conducting financial transactions with them.
The sanctions “demonstrates US resolve to uphold the Washington Accords. As President Trump has made clear, the United States is prepared to use all available tools to ensure the DRC and Rwanda deliver on the promises of this historic agreement,” the US State Department said.
Responding to the sanctions, the Office of the Government Spokesperson of Rwanda on Monday said the sanctions unjustly target only one party to the peace process and misrepresent the reality and distort the facts of the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
“The DRC coalition includes foreign mercenaries, state-sponsored extremist ethnic militias (Wazalendo), and the FDLR genocidal militia which fights alongside the FARDC. The DRC committed, in the Washington Accords, to an irreversible and verifiable end to state support for the FDLR and associated militias, but have not taken any steps to do so. Rwanda is fully committed to disengagement of its forces in tandem with the DRC implementing their obligations,” the statement continued.
“Rwanda welcomes the resumption of the implementation process, including the Joint Oversight Committee, which requires an even-handed approach from all partners. Rwanda remains committed to delivering on all aspects of the Washington Accords, including the Regional Economic Integration Framework,” the statement concluded.
The sanctions could complicate Rwanda’s troop deployment to Mozambique, where about 4 000 Rwandan soldiers are working with that country’s armed forces to combat Islamic State Mozambique insurgents and safeguard TotalEnergies’ natural gas interests.
Nyakarundi visited Rwandan troops in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province on 26 February. He also stopped in the provincial capital, Pemba, where he met with the Commander of the Mozambican Army, and then travelled to Mocímboa da Praia, the headquarters of Rwandan forces in the province.
On 27 August last year, Mozambique’s National Defence Minister Cristóvão Artur Chume and his Rwandan counterpart, Juvenal Marizamunda, signed a Status of Force Agreement in Kigali to keep the Rwanda Defence Force engaged in the fight against Islamic State Mozambique.
About 1 000 Rwandan troops and police officers first deployed to Cabo Delgado in July 2021 to help contain the insurgency that has terrorized the country’s northernmost province since 2017.
The Rwandan military is also a top contributor to United Nations peacekeeping efforts, notably in the Central African Republic and South Sudan, and its peacekeeping efforts there could also be impacted by the sanctions.
@DefenceWeb
