A confidential UN expert report, shared with the UN Security Council sanctions committee in early May, reveals that Rwanda has exercised command and control over the M23 rebel group in eastern DR Congo. It also documents Kigali’s training, deployment of high-tech military gear, and personnel support to M23 as they seized Goma and Bukavu.
According to Reuters, the report details how Rwanda supplied military supplies and advanced air-defense systems, giving M23 a decisive tactical advantage over the Congolese army .
Diplomats said this report must be released publicly, having been submitted in early May. Its emergence coincides with a U.S.-brokered peace deal signed in Washington on June 27, involving Rwanda, DR Congo, and mediated by the Trump administration and Qatar.
Since January, M23 has captured key eastern cities—Goma and Bukavu—using support from Rwanda, according to both the DR Congo government, UN, and several Western nations.
However, Kigali insists support to M23 is aimed at countering the Hutu FDLR militia, denying allegations that the motive was political control or resource capture.
Meanwhile, the U.S. deal empowers Trump to pursue extensive investment in the region’s mineral-rich sectors—including tantalum, cobalt, lithium, and gold—while calling for removal of sanctions tied to any support for armed groups.
