By Simon Lewis
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States on Thursday said it was imposing sanctions on a Rwandan government minister and a senior member of an armed group for their alleged role in the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The Rwanda-backed M23 militant group has overrun eastern Congo’s two major cities in recent weeks, deepening a dire humanitarian crisis and sparking open talk of a coup against President Felix Tshisekedi’s government in Kinshasa.
“This aggression has undermined the territorial integrity of the DRC,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement, warning that Rwanda should end its support for M23 and return to Angola led negotiations.
“This violence risks escalating into a broader regional conflict,” Bruce added.
The U.S. Treasury Department, announcing the financial sanctions, said Rwanda’s Minister of State for Regional Integration James Kabarebe, a retired general, was targeted for orchestrating Rwandan support for M23.
M23 itself has been under U.S. sanctions since 2013 for alleged violations of international law including targeting children, killing and maiming civilians and sexual violence.
“In addition, Kabarebe manages much of Rwanda and M23’s generation of revenue from the DRC’s mineral resources. He has coordinated the export of extracted minerals from mining sites in the DRC for eventual export from Rwanda,” the Treasury said.
Also targeted on Tuesday was Lawrence Kanyuka Kingston, an M23 and Congo River Alliance senior member and spokesperson, and two companies he controls in Britain and France, the Treasury said.
Rwanda rejects allegations from Congo, the United Nations, and Western powers that it supports M23 with arms and troops. It says it is defending itself against the threat from a Hutu militia, which it says is fighting with the Congolese military.
“Sanctions are unjustified, the international community should support, not undermine, ongoing regional efforts towards a political solution,” Rwanda’s government spokesperson Yolande Makolo told Reuters in a text message. “If sanctions could resolve conflict in eastern DRC, we would have had peace in the region decades ago.”
Congo said it welcomed the U.S. sanctions and that it wanted to see more such measures.
“This marks the beginning of a long series of sanctions that we want to be more robust from the U.N. Security Council, the European Union and other partners in order to force Rwanda to withdraw its troops and cease its criminal activities on our soil,” government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said in a statement posted on social media.
(Reporting by Simon Lewis; additional reporting by Hereward Holland; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
