DR Congo takes Rwanda to UN court over alleged abuses in east
Kinshasa accuses Kigali of responsibility for decades of massacres, displacement and other abuses in eastern Congo, allegations Rwanda denies.
By James Whitfield · Staff Writer
3 min read
The Democratic Republic of the Congo has filed a case against Rwanda at the International Court of Justice, accusing Kigali of responsibility for decades of abuses in eastern Congo. The move puts a long-running regional conflict before the United Nations’ top court for disputes between states.
The ICJ said on Friday that it had received Congo’s application, which concerns alleged abuses attributed to Rwanda from 1996 to the present. The court said the filing asks judges to examine Rwanda’s alleged role in violence in eastern DRC, a region bordering Rwanda.
According to the Congolese government, Rwanda bears direct responsibility for massacres, forced displacement and other atrocities in eastern Congo. Kinshasa said civilians in the region have suffered massacres, extrajudicial killings, torture, sexual violence, forced displacement and discrimination.
The Congolese application says the alleged abuses chiefly targeted Hutus who were present in Zaire, later the Democratic Republic of the Congo, after the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. The filing also says other Congolese communities, including the Nyindu, Bembe, Lega, Nande, Hunde and Bashi, were targeted.
Allegations tied to armed groups
Congo’s filing alleges that Rwandan forces acted with proxy groups in eastern DRC after the 1994 genocide. It names groups including the M23/AFC alliance and the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire, known as the AFDL.
Kinshasa says those forces carried out unlawful military operations against refugee camps, villages and urban centres during the First and Second Congo Wars and in later years. The government is asking the court to order Rwanda to stop the alleged violations and to award full reparations to Congo and to victims.
M23 is the most prominent group named in the filing. The rebel movement captured Goma and Bukavu, two strategic cities in eastern Congo, in early 2025, displacing hundreds of thousands of people, according to the Congolese account cited in the case.
Recent diplomacy has not ended the fighting. A United States-brokered peace deal signed in June 2025 and a later ceasefire declaration mediated by Qatar failed to stop the violence, according to reporting cited by Al Jazeera and Reuters.
Rwanda denies backing M23
Rwanda has consistently denied supporting M23 or any armed groups operating in Congo. Kigali has described its military presence in eastern Congo as self-defence against the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR, a Hutu militia formed from remnants of forces involved in the 1994 genocide.
Rwanda accuses Congo of harbouring the FDLR, an allegation Kinshasa rejects. United Nations experts and Western governments have found substantial evidence of Rwandan support for M23, according to Al Jazeera and Reuters.
There was no immediate response from Kigali to the new ICJ case. Rwanda has previously rejected accusations that it backs armed groups in eastern Congo.
This is the third time Congo has sought action against Rwanda at the ICJ. In 2006, the court dismissed an earlier case after finding that it lacked jurisdiction.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.