NEWS RELEASE: Friday 18 April, 2025
CONTACT: Dr. Deborah S. Rogers, President, Initiative for Equality
EMAIL: deborah.rogers@initiativeforequality.org
Congolese Civil Society Coalition Calls on International Community to Stop Funding the Invasion and Occupation of Eastern DRC by Rwanda and Proxies
A coalition of Congolese civil society leaders is calling on the international community to cease all material and political support for Rwanda’s invasion and occupation of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In an Open Letter signed and circulated by 79 Congolese non-profit leaders and public interest attorneys, they make the case that Rwanda is supporting the M23 and other armed militias in order to illicitly extract minerals from the DRC which are then sold as Rwandan products. This is made possible, they say, by the financial and diplomatic support of the European Union and various Western countries, companies and multilateral donors such as the World Bank.
The coalition, called Mobilization for the Safeguarding of Congolese Sovereignty and Autonomy (using the French acronym, MOSSAC), consists of many individuals who are currently living under the M23-Rwandan occupation in the provincial capitals of Goma and Bukavu. They are taking a great personal risk in speaking out, because the occupying forces often target activists, opposition figures and journalists with extrajudicial arrests, imprisonment or killings.
“Our situation is unbearable,” said Aline (not her real name), an attorney, women’s rights advocate and mother of four young children. “The children can’t go to school or play outside. The banks are closed and we don’t get paid; we’re running out of money. We can’t sleep at night because of the gunfire around our neighborhood.” she said. She is especially shocked by the frequent mass rapes that are being reported. “It’s traumatizing us all,” she added.
After meeting to assess the dire situation, MOSSAC coalition members decided to release an Open Letter to inform the international community of their plight, the causes of the war, and the steps that could be taken to block and reverse the invasion. The Open Letter characterizes the situation in the occupied regions as ‘unsustainable’, saying: “The Rwandan army and its M23 proxies killed thousands of people in the capture of Goma alone… These massacres, documented in countless press articles, continue to this day: point-blank assassinations, summary executions of children, disappearances, nighttime house searches, mass sexual violence, executions of more than 100 incarcerated women by burning them alive, targeted assassinations of activists and journalists, and human rights violations of all kinds.”
Over just the past week, the Congolese government has denounced continued violations including assassinations, torture, rape and looting, including 52 deaths in Goma, numerous cases of murder and summary executions, 72 rapes, and hundreds of missing persons.
Laurent (not his real name) heads a large, multigenerational household, and advocates for the rights and development of his indigenous community. “We are trapped in our home now. It’s very stressful,” he says. “Every morning, dead bodies are found in the streets. We can’t find the medicine we need for one of our children who is gravely ill. We can’t work. The shops are empty, and we are running out of food and water.”
He said that he refuses to attend the involuntary “community work” days and political events as commanded by the M23 rebels and their political allies, the Congo River Alliance (AFC). “They say that they are liberating us,” he says, “but in reality, they are strangling us.”
MOSSAC’s Open Letter calls for international actors to take five urgently needed steps, each of which is explained in greater detail in the Letter:
- Refute the false and inconsistent narratives used by Rwanda to both deny and justify its invasion of the DRC.
- Cease all aid and other funding to Rwanda, which enables it to continue its invasion and occupation of the DRC, as well as the illicit extraction of its minerals.
- Prevent the purchase of blood minerals stolen from the DRC by Rwanda.
- Prevent arms imports by Rwanda.
- Enforce the implementation UN Security Council’s Resolution 2773, which calls on the M23 rebels and Rwandan forces to immediately cease their offensive and withdraw from the country.
“It’s inexcusable that the international community would continue to support Rwanda’s invasion of the DRC, leading to millions of displaced people, with half a million in and around Goma,” says Aaron (not his real name). He is the director of an organization that was feeding children in the displaced persons’ camps. These camps were recently forcibly evacuated and subsequently destroyed by M23, leaving the displaced people with no access to assistance now.
“Does this forced return to less secure areas take into account the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement? What has happened to these children and their parents?” he asked. “Children’s needs are simple. They need food, shelter, play, education and love,” he added.
“We are demanding that the international agencies and donor countries stop supporting Rwanda immediately,” says Jacqueline (not her real name). An attorney and advocate for human rights, Jacqueline has deep knowledge of the Congo’s governance system and military courts.
“We aren’t asking for someone to come in and fight our battles for us. If the West would just stop providing support for Rwanda’s military aggression, we could stop the M23 and Rwanda with our bare hands!” she exclaimed.
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See attached:
- Open Letter_18 Apr 2025_EN by MOSSAC members
- Signatories – Signataires de la lettre to the Open Letter (anonymized descriptions of the organization)
- Attachment 1. UNSC Resolution 2773 – EN – 21 Feb 2025 UN Security Council Resolution 2773 Adopted by the Security Council at its 9865th meeting, on 21 February 2025