DR Congo Rwanda Pact Dispute Grows Over Troops
The Democratic Republic of Congo says Rwanda has flouted the Washington-brokered peace pact by failing to withdraw its troops from Congolese territory. Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner told AFP on Thursday that United States sanctions on Rwanda were justified, because Kigali had broken the main promise it made under the deal.
The DR Congo Rwanda pact dispute now turns on a simple question: who has kept their side of the bargain. Kinshasa says it has made progress on its promise to neutralise a militia that Kigali calls a cross-border threat. Kigali, it says, has not kept its matching promise to pull its troops out.
“We think it’s very important to have sanctions. First of all, the sanctions establish the truth,” Wagner said. “Rwanda signed the Washington agreement and has been consistently violating them,” she added. She said Rwanda had fallen short of its main commitment under the agreement to withdraw troops that are illegally in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and that the consequences are being felt.
“The fact that there are sanctions establishes the fact that there have been violations,” Wagner said in the interview, given in Moscow.
What the DR Congo Rwanda pact promised
Under the Washington-brokered peace agreement, the two sides took on linked commitments. DR Congo promised to neutralise the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, known as the FDLR, an armed group founded by former Rwandan Hutu officials responsible for the 1994 genocide of the Tutsi. The group remains active in eastern DR Congo.
Rwanda, in return, was to withdraw its troops from Congolese territory. Kinshasa says that withdrawal has not happened. Kigali makes its withdrawal conditional on the neutralisation of the FDLR. That linkage is why the deal has stalled. Each side says the other must move first, and each side points to the other’s failure as the reason for its own delay.
The agreement did not end the fighting. M23, an armed group fighting in eastern DR Congo, and Rwandan forces seized large areas in a 2025 offensive, and fighting has continued despite the peace deal. United Nations experts say Rwanda has deployed thousands of troops in eastern DR Congo and exercises significant control over M23.
Sanctions target the defence ministry and a lender
The United States imposed sanctions on Wednesday on Rwanda’s defence ministry and a financial institution over their alleged ties to M23. Rwandan reporting named the financial institution as Zigama Credit and Savings Society, and dated the sanctions announcement to October 28.
Sanctions on a defence ministry are a political signal as much as a financial one. They name the institution that Kinshasa accuses of running the troop presence, rather than a single officer or unit. Sanctions on a lender linked to the same network widen that signal to the money behind the fighting. Wagner welcomed that approach, arguing that sanctions record a fact: a signed agreement has been broken.
Kigali rejects blame
Rwanda rejects Kinshasa’s account. Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe, speaking to AFP on the sidelines of a Russia-Africa summit in Moscow on Wednesday, said Rwanda should not repeatedly be held responsible for developments in its neighbour. He argued that the country’s political and security crisis must be addressed by Congolese actors.
Rwanda has repeatedly denied backing M23. Nduhungirehe also rejected Kinshasa’s portrayal of former Congolese president Joseph Kabila as a Rwandan proxy after his reported alignment with the M23-linked coalition, saying the issue should be settled politically among Congolese parties.
The two statements, given days apart in the same city, show how far apart the two governments remain. Kinshasa frames the sanctions as proof of a broken promise. Kigali frames the conflict as a Congolese crisis that outsiders keep blaming on Rwanda. Both sides spoke to AFP in Moscow, which underlines that the argument is now being made to the wider world, not just to each other.
