On Thursday, the departments of State and Treasury announced sanctions against Rwandan Minister of State for Regional Integration James Kabarebe and Lawrence Kanyuka Kingston, spokesman for the Rwandan-backed M23 and the Congo River Alliance. Two companies linked to Kanyuka, the U.K.-based Kingston Fresh and Paris-based Kingston Holding, were also sanctioned.
The sanctions are the first major diplomatic moves by the U.S. since M23’s blitz last month that seized control of Goma, a strategic city in the eastern DRC.
The sanctions coincided with the rapid progress of M23, which seized Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province and the eastern DRC’s second-largest city after Goma.
“Today’s action underscores our intent to hold accountable key officials and leaders like Kabarebe and Kanyuka, who are enabling the [Rwandan Defense Force] and M23’s destabilizing activities in the eastern DRC,” acting Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley Smith said in a statement. “The United States remains committed to ensuring a peaceful resolution to this conflict.”
Kabarebe is one of Rwanda’s most talented and celebrated military commanders, beginning his career as aide-de-camp to now-President Paul Kagame during his insurgency in the Rwandan Civil War. He led Rwandan-backed rebel forces during the First Congo War that saw the toppling of Congolese dictator Mobutu Sese Seko and the installation of Laurent-Desire Kabila.
After Kabila turned on Kabarebe and Rwanda, Kabarebe masterminded and led Operation Kitona in 1998, described by a U.S. military officer as “an odyssey fit for a Hollywood script.”
Lacking a proper airforce, Rwandan forces and their allies seized Goma’s airport in the east, hijacking two Boeing 727s and two Boeing 707s. The pilots, at gunpoint, proceeded to fly 1,200 miles to Kitona Air Base, the DRC’s westernmost military air base. The Rwandan-led forces, personally led by Kabarebe, quickly seized the DRC’s narrow coastline, ports, and infrastructure, cutting off the capital Kinshasa’s power. The fall of Kinshasa was only averted by the massive intervention of Zimbabwe and Angola. Kabarebe led his troops to fight through hostile territory to seize another airfield, extend its runway by hundreds of meters, and then fly back to the Rwandan-controlled eastern DRC.
He later served as Rwanda’s minister of defense from 2010 to 2018. He is now believed to be directly in charge of managing Rwandan support for M23 operations.
In a press release, the State Department urged Rwanda to return to negotiations under the Angola-led Luanda Process, to cease support for M23, and to withdraw all RDF troops from the DRC. Roughly 4,000 RDF troops are estimated to be stationed in the eastern DRC, with most of these fighting alongside M23.
“We call on Rwanda to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the DRC. We also urge the Governments of Rwanda and the DRC to hold accountable those responsible for human rights violations and abuses. The persistence of conflict impedes economic development and dissuades U.S. businesses from investing in both Rwanda and the DRC—a loss for the region and the American people,” the State Department statement read.
The sanctioning of two individuals falls far short of what DRC leaders are demanding: punishing sanctions against all of Rwanda and allied rebel groups. The threat of sanctions prompted the withdrawal of Rwandan support for M23 in 2012, but the situation has since changed.
Ben Shepherd, a consulting fellow at the U.K. think tank Chatham House, told the Financial Times that Kagame could have assessed that obtaining Congolese minerals is worth the risk of dwindling international aid.
“Maybe this is Kagame reading the room accurately,” he said. “Getting in there early and creating facts on the ground — regardless of costs to Congolese civilians and regional stability.”
After the fall of Goma, M23 forces seized Rubaya, one of the world’s richest mining areas for critical minerals.
The sudden ability of M23 to seize large swathes of territory and rout the much larger armed forces of the DRC supported the United Nations’s view that Rwanda is heavily backing the group.
A December 2024 U.N. report alleged that M23 had become a de facto extension of the Rwandan Defense Force. The report argued that roughly 4,000 regular RDF troops were operating alongside M23. M23 itself now resembles a conventional army, with uniforms, modern equipment, and advanced tactics rather than the ragtag militia group it once was.
Most directly, the RDF had “de facto control” over M23 command, and “Every M23 unit was supervised and supported by RDF special forces,” the report argued.
The situation for the DRC armed forces is quickly becoming critical. M23 seized the airport of Kavumu, the primary supply route in a country with some of the most derelict infrastructure in the world.
WHY IS WAR BREAKING OUT IN THE CONGO?
“Soldiers are leaving on foot, the officers are leaving by boat,” a Bukavu-based researcher told the Economist. “There’s no more military logistics, no more resupply.”
The current war is the biggest outbreak of violence in the region since the conclusion of the Second Congo War in 2003 — the bloodiest war of the 21st century, with 3 million to 5.4 million deaths. Thousands of people have been killed in the current round of fighting.
