Belgium demands Rwanda stop backing M23 rebels in DR Congo

Belgium on Friday told Rwanda to “cease all assistance” to the M23 rebels fighting in DR Congo, after a UN probe said the group had massacred 131 civilians last month.

“The M23 must immediately cease hostilities and withdraw from the areas under its control,” Belgium’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

“Belgium calls on Rwanda to cease all assistance to the M23 and to continue to use all the means at its disposal to persuade it to re-engage in a process of disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration.”

The UN mission in DRC said Thursday that preliminary investigations showed 131 people had been killed “as part of reprisals against the civilian population” by the rebels in the attack on November 29-30.

At least 22 women and five girls were raped, the UN added.

“Belgium condemns in the strongest terms the murder of a large number of civilians…,” said Brussels. “The perpetrators of this massacre cannot go unpunished.”

The M23, a mostly Congolese Tutsi group, resumed fighting in late 2021 after lying dormant for years, launching a major offensive against government forces.

The M23 crisis has led to a surge in tensions between the DRC and neighbouring Rwanda, which Kinshasa accuses of backing the group. Rwanda has denied providing any support and in turn accuses the DRC of colluding with those linked to the 1994 genocide.

One of those groups, it said, was the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) — a former Rwandan Hutu rebel group established in the DRC after the mass killings of the Tutsi community.

The Belgian statement also called for “an end to all relations, intentional or not, between any Congolese authority and the FDLR”.

Belgium is the former colonial power that ruled over both DR Congo and Rwanda. It has close, if often fraught ties, with the region.

The European Union on Friday also “strongly condemned” the massacre last month and called for a further “in-depth investigation” to help bring those responsible to justice.

“Armed groups must end their actions, withdraw from the areas they occupy and lay down their arms,” a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.

“All forms of support for these various groups must cease immediately,” the statement said.