Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday that “Rwanda must halt its support for M23 and withdraw its troops from eastern DRC,” as the Treasury Department sanctioned Rwanda’s Ministry of Defence and a financial cooperative serving the country’s security forces, accusing both of backing the March 23 Movement rebels in eastern Congo.
“Today, the United States makes good on President Trump’s promise to hold Rwanda accountable for its commitments under the Washington Accords for Peace and Prosperity,” Bessent said in a Treasury press release announcing the sanctions. “Rwanda must halt its support for M23 and withdraw its troops from eastern DRC.” He repeated the message in a post on his official X account, sharing the department’s announcement.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control designated the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Rwanda and the Zigama Credit and Savings Society under the Democratic Republic of the Congo sanctions program, according to OFAC’s Oct. 28 actions notice. Treasury said the ministry oversees Rwanda’s security services, including the Rwanda Defence Force, and that at the ministry’s direction the RDF has deployed thousands of troops in North and South Kivu, fought alongside M23 and supplied the group with equipment, logistics and training.
Treasury also said RDF forces brought surface-to-air missile systems and jamming equipment into eastern Congo that pose risks to civilian aviation. It said M23, which is under U.S. and United Nations sanctions, has seized towns and mining areas, including gold sites in South Kivu and the Rubaya coltan zone in North Kivu, and that civilians in rebel-held mines have faced forced labor, dangerous conditions and illegal “taxation.” Minerals from those areas enter Rwandan supply chains, Treasury said, noting that Rwanda’s reported mineral exports have exceeded its domestic mining capacity since the rebellion resurfaced in 2021.
Treasury said Zigama operates on behalf of Rwanda’s security services, has paid China and other countries for weapons and related equipment for the RDF, covered RDF travel and training costs, helped move gold from M23-held territory to Kigali, and handled tens of millions of dollars in transactions for M23 and its political wing, the Congo River Alliance. Both entities were designated under Executive Order 13413, as amended, for materially assisting the RDF; Zigama’s designation also cites its support for M23 and the Congo River Alliance.
Wednesday’s action builds on earlier sanctions. On March 2, Treasury sanctioned the Rwanda Defence Force and four senior officers — Vincent Nyakarundi, Ruki Karusisi, Mubarakh Muganga and Stanislas Gashugi — saying the RDF was supporting, training and fighting alongside M23. OFAC’s March 2 notice added the RDF and the four officers to its list of Specially Designated Nationals and issued a license allowing existing transactions to wind down.
Treasury said M23 captured Goma and Bukavu, the capitals of North and South Kivu, in early 2025, and that on Oct. 12 a group calling itself the Front for the Refoundation of the Nation announced it was succeeding the Congo River Alliance. The release also cited a July 8, 2024, State Department statement raising concerns about mineral supply chains linked to instability in eastern Congo.
Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame signed the Washington Accords for Peace and Prosperity in Washington on Dec. 4, 2025, with Trump as a witness, according to the State Department’s joint declaration published that day. The accords reaffirm a June 27, 2025, peace agreement and an April 25, 2025, declaration of principles, and include a Regional Economic Integration Framework covering mining, infrastructure and industry. Treasury described the accords as a U.S.-brokered path to end the conflict in eastern Congo and expand regional trade and transparency in critical minerals.
Rwanda said Congo has not met its own obligations under the accords. Government spokesperson Yolande Makolo told the BBC World Service that the accords contain “clear commitments regarding Rwanda’s security, specifically the neutralization of the DR Congo-sponsored FDLR genocidal militia, which are wholly unmet, and with no accountability.” She added, “Rwanda remains ready to fully implement the Washington Accords, concurrently with the willingness of the DRC to fulfill those commitments, and with the mediator holding all parties accountable.” The FDLR, or Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, is an armed group founded by Hutu extremists linked to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Kigali has long denied directing M23 and says its forces act to protect Rwanda from the group.
The BBC also reported that Tshisekedi on Oct. 24 urged the international community to impose concrete sanctions on Rwanda, and that Congo’s foreign ministry told Reuters it welcomed Wednesday’s measures and called on Rwanda to withdraw its troops and comply with the accords.
Under the sanctions, any property of the designated entities in the United States or controlled by U.S. persons is blocked, as are any entities owned 50 percent or more by them, and Americans are generally barred from doing business with them without a license. Treasury said violations can bring civil or criminal penalties, including for foreign persons who cause U.S. persons to break the rules.
Bessent’s demand that Rwanda “halt its support for M23” rests on Treasury’s finding that Rwanda’s defense ministry and a financial body serving its forces have armed, funded and fought alongside the rebels. Those designations, like the March sanctions on the RDF, are now in effect. Rwanda rejects the accusation that it directs M23 and says Congo has failed to meet its own commitments under the accords.