13.12.2025
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said action will be taken against Rwanda for violating a peace agreement signed with US President Donald Trump.
This was after Rwandan backed M23 rebels captured the strategic city of Uvira, one of the few remaining army strongholds in the eastern DRC.
“Rwanda’s actions in eastern DRC are a clear violation of the Washington Accords signed by President Trump, and the United States will take action to ensure promises made to the President are kept,” Rubio wrote on X.
The capture of Uvira, along the border with Burundi, has raised fears of the conflict breaking out into a regional war.
Trump had frequently touted the DRC conflict as one of several wars he helped end since returning to the White House.
On Friday, US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz accused Rwanda of “leading the region toward more instability and toward war”.
“The Rwandan defence forces have provided material, logistics and training support to M23 as well as fighting alongside M23 in DRC with roughly 5,000 to 7,000 troops,” not including possible reinforcements during the latest offensive, Waltz told the UN Security Council.
United Nations experts have previously accused Kigali of having “de facto control” of the rebel force’s operations.
Bertrand Bisimwa, the Deputy Coordinator of the AFC-M23 rebel alliance, said Friday that the Washington Accord related to relations between Congo and Rwanda.
“It has never changed the reality on the ground, in the sense that the war that we are fighting with Kinshasa since the beginning of the conflict has never stopped, regardless of the ceasefire agreements we have signed with them,” he said.
Congo DR forces...