UN experts report widespread peace deal violations in eastern Congo

M23 rebels escort government soldiers and police who surrendered to an undisclosed location in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa, File) Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year] DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — All parties in eastern Congo’s worsening conflict are violating peace terms and committing abuses, U.N. experts said in a report seen by The Associated Press Thursday.The Congolese army and the M23 rebel group, along with its Rwandan backers, have failed to implement a December peace agreement initiated by the Trump administration that aimed to end the decades-long conflict, the experts said. They said that the Congolese army continued to cooperate with a Hutu rebel group, known by its acronym FDLR, which includes fighters who participated in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and escaped to Congo. The government in Kinshasa had promised to cease cooperation as part of the December agreement. Rwanda has repeatedly sent troops and backed armed groups in eastern Congo, saying it was acting to neutralize Hutu fighters and protect its security. Congo and the U.S. government have accused Rwanda of using the rebels as a pretext to gain access to the region’s mineral wealth. The report said that the Rwandan-backed M23 group, which seized Goma and other eastern cities in a lightning offensive early last year, had not withdrawn as promised but instead has tactically positioned and still maintains its goals to topple the government in Kinshasa. 2 MIN READ 2 MIN READ 1 MIN READ It said M23 now controls significant swaths of territory in eastern Congo and is the leading perpetrator of conflict-related sexual violence. Rwanda exercises significant control over M23, and in late 2025, Rwandan troops in Congo were “conservatively estimated at 8,000 to 10,000 elements in South Kivu and 6,000 to 8,000 in North Kivu, with no evidence of significant withdrawals thereafter,” in violation of the peace agreement, according to the panel of experts.The U.N. has called the conflict in eastern Congo “one of the most protracted, complex, serious humanitarian crises on Earth.” Last week, Congo said it filed a case against Rwanda at the International Court of Justice, accusing its neighbor of bearing legal responsibility for the violence that has devastated eastern Congo.The U.N. experts said that minerals from Rubaya and other mining sites in the Masisi region of eastern Congo continued to be smuggled to Rwanda by M23, which is building a parallel economy in areas it controls. This new economy is dominated by Rwandan-linked companies exporting minerals mined in Congo, it said. The U.S. last week imposed sanctions on a Rwanda -based gold refinery, describing it as being part of “a network working in coordination” with M23 in eastern Congo. It said the sanctions against Gasabo Gold Refinery were in support of the U.S. and Qatari peace efforts.