US urges UN action to stop Rwanda, M23 rebels in eastern Congo

NEW YORK, United States

The United States urged the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday to consider measures to halt an offensive by Rwandan troops and M23 rebel forces in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as a conflict there escalates.

Acting U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Dorothy Shea did not specify to the 15-member council what action could be taken. The council has the authority to impose sanctions.

"We call for an immediate ceasefire and end to this fighting. Rwanda must withdraw troops from the DRC. Rwanda and the DRC must return to the negotiating table and work toward a sustainable, peaceful solution," Shea told the Security Council.

The Rwandan-backed M23 rebels marched into Goma, the largest city in eastern Congo, on Monday in the worst escalation of a long-running conflict in more than a decade.

Congo accused Rwanda of sending its troops over the border, while Rwanda said fighting near the border threatened its security, without directly commenting on whether its troops were in Congo.

At the U.N. Security Council, Congolese Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner demanded targeted sanctions on Rwandan military and political leaders, an arms embargo, a ban on purchases of Rwandan natural resources and barring Rwandan troops from U.N. peacekeeping missions.

Earlier on Tuesday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke to the Congolese and Rwandan presidents over the escalating conflict that has killed several U.N. peacekeepers, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

In his call with the Rwandan president, "there was also special emphasis on the need to protect civilians in that area," Dujarric said.

The suffering of civilians in and around Goma is "truly unimaginable," deputy U.N. envoy in Congo Vivian van de Perre, in a helmet and flak jacket, told the Security Council via video from the city.

Special Representative of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Vivian van de Perre, addresses, via video link, a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the situation concerning the Democratic Republic of the Congo, at U.N. headquarters in New York City, U.S., January 28, 2025

U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said on Monday that Rwandan forces were supporting the M23 rebels in Goma.

Wagner said in the council meeting that Rwandan soldiers had been killed in eastern Congo, but Rwanda's U.N. Ambassador Ernest Rwamucyo rejected that claim.

Rwamucyo said Rwanda has always demonstrated restraint and a desire to improve border security.

"The deteriorating security situation in the eastern DRC has only one immediate cause - the obsession by the president of the DRC for a military solution and thirst for regime change in Rwanda," he told the council.

The Security Council on Sunday issued a statement that demanded M23 rebel forces stop the offensive and that "external forces" in the region immediately withdraw. "Rwanda has proven time and again that your statements mean absolutely nothing to it," Wagner said on Tuesday.

The U.N. peacekeeping force in the Congo MONUSCO has faced heavy direct and indirect fire and faces challenges keeping its staff and premises safe, van de Perre told the Security Council.

The mission was helping protect vulnerable groups, but "urgent and coordinated international action" to stop the violence is needed, she added.