US sanctions DRC rebel leaders for fuelling conflict

WASHINGTON, US

Washington this week put under sanctions the Congo River Alliance, known by its French name Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC), a coalition of armed groups accused of fuelling violent conflict and civilian displacement in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The US designated individuals and entities associated with AFC, including former head of the Congolese electoral commission Corneille Nangaa, at a time a trial at the military court in Kinshasa started against him, his relatives and his companions accused of involvement in the rebellion, on July 25.

Nangaa and 24 other people, including his wife and brother, are being prosecuted in absentia (for Nangaa and 19 of his companions) for "war crimes, participation in an insurrectional movement and treason" in the eastern part of the DRC. They face heavy sentences, including the death penalty, if found guilty.

AFC and its affiliates – including the US- and UN-designated, M23 rebel group – have called for the overthrow of the government of the DRC and “have used violence to achieve this political goal, resulting in serious violations of international law that have exacerbated a humanitarian crisis in eastern DRC,” said a statement from the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac).

Washington condemned the continued displacement of civilians in North Kivu and encirclement of its provincial capital, Goma, and the human rights abuses committed by M23 in Masisi, Rutshuru, and Nyiragongo territories, the statement added.

“The US has long sought to hold accountable those actors' harming civilians and creating instability in eastern DRC. Today’s measures are intended to support a DRC that is peaceful, prosperous, and sovereign. We remain committed to supporting regional peace processes, including the Angola-led Luanda process and East African Community-led Nairobi process, which seek to create the conditions to end the hostilities,” it said.

US Treasury has also sanctioned Bertrand Bisimwa, a leader of the political wing of the M23, and Charles Sematama, a former colonel in the Congolese army who defected in January 2020 to Walikale territory in North Kivu before moving to South Kivu where he is deputy commander of the Twirwaneho militia, an armed group affiliated to the AFC.

The US Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson said the action “reinforces our commitment to hold accountable those who seek to perpetuate instability, violence, and harm to civilians to achieve their political goals."

"We condemn AFC and its affiliates, including M23, for fuelling this deadly conflict and exacerbating a humanitarian crisis in eastern DRC," Ofac wrote.

Nangaa launched the Fleuve Congo alliance in Nairobi in December 2023 and allied himself with the M23, who have been waging war against the Congolese army and have succeeded in capturing certain territories in eastern Congo.

Ofac states that the M23 and its allied groups have a "long history of destabilising the DRC's North Kivu province and perpetrating human rights abuses.

As chair of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Nangaa was also put under US sanctions for corruption allegations in 2019, in relation to his role in the December 2018 elections, which Kinshasa said were "democratic” and “enabled the DRC to experience a peaceful transition … for the first time in the country's history."

Several other political and military leaders of the M23 are under sanctions imposed by the US, the UN and the European Union. These include M23 military spokesman Willy Ngoma and Sulltani Makenga, the military leader of the M23/AFC.

"AFC's primary member is M23, a Rwanda-backed rebel group that seized vast swathes of eastern DRC in 2012 and briefly controlled the border city of Goma, before fleeing to neighbouring Rwanda and Uganda in 2013. Ofac designated M23 on January 3, 2013, pursuant to E.O. 13413, for committing serious violations of international law involving the targeting of children in situations of armed conflict in the DRC, including killing and maiming, sexual violence, abduction, and forced displacement, and receiving arms and related materiel, including military aircraft and equipment, or advice, training, or assistance, including financing and financial assistance, related to military activities in the DRC," Ofac said.

These sanctions come at a time when, on the battlefield, the parties to the conflict have been observing a humanitarian truce for nearly a month at the request of the United States.

The UOFAC freezes all assets and interests in assets of the designated persons sanctioned which are in the US or in the possession or control of US. In addition, all entities owned, directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked.

Unless authorised by a general or specific licence issued by Ofac, or exempted, Ofac regulations generally prohibit all transactions by US persons or within (or in transit through) the US that involve property or interests in property of designated or otherwise blocked persons.

Reacting to the sanctions, Nangaa said:"Neither illegitimate sanctions nor Kafkaesque trials will shake us in our noble struggle for national recovery! As Congolese citizens, nothing, and then nothing, will stop us in this struggle for the liberation of the Congolese people.”