NAIROBI, Kenya
The Rwandan-controlled M23 armed group has deported over 1,500 people from occupied eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to Rwanda in violation of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, Human Rights Watch said today.
Rwanda’s military, logistical, and other support to the M23 was critical for its capture of Goma and Bukavu, the provincial capitals of North and South Kivu respectively, from Congolese forces in early 2025.
In February, the M23 ordered several hundred thousand people to leave displacement camps around Goma and dismantled virtually all the camps.
In May, the M23 rounded up and transferred previously displaced people to Goma, where many were unlawfully deported to Rwanda with the assistance of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
“The forcible transfer of civilians to Rwanda, whether Congolese citizens or Rwandan refugees, is a war crime under the Geneva Conventions,” said Clémentine de Montjoye, senior Great Lakes researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Rwanda’s control over the M23 in eastern Congo makes it ultimately responsible for the armed group’s numerous abuses.”
Rwanda’s effective control over parts of eastern Congo through its own armed forces and the M23 appears to meet the international humanitarian law standards for a belligerent occupation.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits, as a war crime, forcible transfers within a country and deportations from occupied territory to other countries, regardless of the motive.
On June 9, 2025, Human Rights Watch wrote to the Rwandan authorities with its findings but has not received a response.
Human Rights Watch from February to May interviewed 14 people who were forced to leave displacement camps near Goma after the M23 ordered them dismantled, including 8 people who were forcibly transferred to Goma in May.
On May 12, the M23 rounded up as many as 2,000 people from the town of Sake, 25 kilometers west of Goma, and forcibly transferred them to Goma, where many were then deported to Rwanda.
This appeared to be part of a broader M23 operation against suspected members of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda, or FDLR), a largely Rwandan Hutu armed group, some of whose leaders took part in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
Many of those in Sake were originally from Karenga, in Masisi territory, which is considered an FDLR stronghold.
M23 officials used the Lake Kivu Christian Center (Centre Chrétien du Lac Kivu or CCLK) transit center, named after its location in Goma, to deport people to Rwanda.
Between May 17 and 19, 2025, several convoys departed from the transit center to Rwanda.
UNHCR usually uses the transit center for voluntary refugee repatriations to Rwanda. However, eight people at the center said that both Congolese citizens and Rwandan refugees were among those being deported against their will.
Many expressed fear that they would face abuse in Rwanda. The M23 deployed forces around the facility to prevent people from escaping.
Some of the people deported spoke to the media to criticize the manner in which they were forcibly transferred to Rwanda. The Rwandan authorities have long targeted those who have criticized the government publicly, including refugees and asylum seekers under UNHCR protection. UNHCR should take steps to protect the safety of those deported to Rwanda.
Human Rights Watch has not been able to communicate with any of those deported from the transit center since their deportation to Rwanda.
UNHCR wrote to Human Rights Watch on May 27 that “1,600 [Rwandan refugees] were brought to the CCLK transit center in Goma as a result of cordon and search exercises conducted by the de facto authorities,” that UNHCR’s screening was “done under pressure,” and that for this group, returning to Rwanda “was the only available option.”
Under the Geneva Conventions, the transfer or deportation needs to be “forcible” to constitute a war crime. Consent to be moved has to be voluntary and not given under coercive conditions.
A transfer is not voluntary when people agree or seek to be transferred as the only means to escape risk of abuse if they remain.
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