A UN panel says the Rwandan defense minister is commanding a rebellion in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Rwanda and Uganda are arming M23 rebels.

The United Nations Security Council’s Group of Experts said in a confidential report that Rwanda and Uganda continued to support the March 23 movement (M23), which is strengthening its grip over the provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu in eastern Congo and could seriously threaten the writ of the Congolese government in the region.

“Both Rwanda and Uganda have been supporting M23,” said the 44-page report on Tuesday.

“While Rwandan officials coordinated the creation of the rebel movement as well as its major military operations, Uganda’s more subtle support to M23 allowed the rebel group’s political branch to operate from within Kampala and boost its external relations,” it said.

“Rwandan officials exercise overall command and strategic planning for M23,” the report added.

“Rwanda continues to violate the arms embargo through direct military support to M23 rebels, facilitation of recruitment, encouragement and facilitation of FARDC (the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo) desertions as well as the provision of arms and ammunition, intelligence, and political advice.”

“UPDF (the Uganda People’s Defence Force) commanders sent troops and weapons to reinforce specific M23 operations and assisted in M23’s recruitment and weapons procurement efforts in Uganda,” the UN panel stated in its report.

The mutiny is being led by General Bosco Ntaganda, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on a charge of recruiting child soldiers, and M23 commander Sultani Makenga is in charge of operations and coordination with allied armed groups, the UN report said.

Both Ntaganda and Makenga “receive direct military orders from RDF (the Rwandan Defence Forces) Chief of Defense staff General Charles Kayonga, who in turn acts on instructions from Minister of Defense General James Kabarebe.”


Since early May, nearly half a million people have been displaced due to the fighting in eastern Congo. Most of them have resettled inside Congo, but tens of thousands have crossed into neighboring Rwanda and Uganda.

The M23 rebels defected from the Congolese army in April in protest over alleged mistreatment in the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC). They had previously been integrated into the Congolese army under a peace deal signed in 2009.

Congo has faced numerous problems over the past few decades, such as grinding poverty, crumbling infrastructure, and a war in the east of the country that has dragged on for over a decade and left over 5.5 million people dead.
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