US hits Rwanda’s army with sanctions for ‘violating’ DR Congo peace deal

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The US has imposed sanctions on the Rwandan Defence Force and four of its top commanders for “blatant violations” of peace accords negotiated by Washington between Rwanda and the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo last year.

The decision to add the RDF to the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac) list marks Washington’s clearest break with Rwanda in three decades. With brief exceptions over that period, the US administration has maintained close ties with Rwanda’s autocratic leader, Paul Kagame, a relationship mirrored by co-operation between the Pentagon and the RDF.

The imposition of sanctions is also an admission that the peace deal — described by US President Donald Trump as “historic” and the eighth war he had ended when it was signed in Washington in December — is unravelling.

The sanctions raise potentially serious complications for the UN as the Rwandan army is one of the top contributors globally to UN peacekeeping efforts, notably in the Central African Republic and South Sudan.

Separately, about 4,000 Rwandan troops are deployed in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado Province helping stave off attacks from Isis-affiliated militants in an area where France’s TotalEnergies has vast LNG interests.

In a statement, Ofac said the RDF had deployed thousands of troops and “provided direct operational support to M23 rebels” as they “seized territory in eastern DRC, including provincial capitals Goma and Bukavu, along with strategic mining sites”.

The Rwandans had also introduced advanced military equipment to the battlefield, including GPS jamming systems, air defences and drones, in support of the rebels, Ofac said. It accused Rwanda-backed rebels of presiding over extrajudicial killings, torture and mass displacement.

The M23 is mostly led by Congolese Tutsis and claims to be defending the minority community from an assortment of militia intent on genocide and ethnic cleansing.

But the group has been accused by the US and UN experts of plundering gold, tantalum and tin mines in the swath of territory it controls. Ofac said that, in exchange for its support for M23, Rwanda has “gained access to mineral-rich areas”.

“President Trump is the Peace President, and Treasury will use all tools at its disposal to ensure that the parties to the Washington Accords uphold their obligations,” US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said, adding that he expected the immediate withdrawal of RDF troops, weapons and equipment.

Trump hosted Kagame and DR Congo President Félix Tshisekedi at the White House in December to sign a peace agreement, underpinned by a separate deal that granted the US access to DR Congo’s vast supplies of critical minerals.

Fighting in eastern DR Congo has intensified since, with both sides persistently violating the accord.

The government in Kigali said the US sanctions, which target Rwanda’s chief of defence forces, commander of special forces, army chief of staff and a division commander, “misrepresented the reality” and were “unjustly” one-sided.

It said the coalition of forces fighting with the Congolese armed forces included extremist ethnic militia including the FDLR, some of whose leaders took part in the 1994 genocide of ethnic Tutsis in Rwanda.

“The DRC committed in the Washington Accords to an irreversible and verifiable end to state support for the FDLR and associated militia but have not taken any steps to do so,” the Rwandan statement said.

Rwanda called for an “even-handed” approach to the conflict, saying it “was fully committed to disengagement of its forces” so long as the DR Congo also fulfilled its obligations “in tandem”.