DR Congo takes Rwanda to UN court over decades of conflict in the east

The Democratic Republic of Congo has launched fresh legal proceedings against Rwanda at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing its neighbour of committing widespread violations of international law during the prolonged conflict in eastern Congo.

The application, submitted to the United Nations’ highest court in The Hague, alleges that Rwanda breached several international treaties by deploying troops and supporting armed groups that carried out military operations inside Congolese territory in the years following the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Speaking on Friday, Justice Minister Guillaume Andali said the case seeks to hold Rwanda accountable for alleged violations of international conventions covering genocide prevention, racial discrimination, the protection of women and the prohibition of torture.

Kinshasa is asking the court to order Rwanda to end the alleged unlawful actions and to award reparations to both the Congolese state and victims affected by the conflict. The ICJ will first determine whether it has jurisdiction before examining the substance of the claims.

Rwanda had not publicly responded to the latest filing by Friday. Kigali has consistently denied allegations that it provides military support to rebel groups operating in eastern DR Congo, despite repeated accusations from United Nations experts and several Western governments that it has backed the M23 rebel movement.

This is the third attempt by DR Congo to pursue Rwanda before the ICJ. An earlier application was withdrawn in 2001, while a second case was dismissed in 2006 after the court ruled it lacked jurisdiction because Rwanda had not accepted the court’s authority in that dispute.

The tensions between the two countries have their origins in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, during which around 800,000 people, mainly from the Tutsi community, were killed by Hutu extremists.

In the aftermath of the genocide, an estimated one million Hutus fled into what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. Their arrival intensified ethnic tensions in the country’s east, where the Banyamulenge, a Tutsi community, increasingly feared persecution.

Rwanda later launched two military interventions in eastern Congo, saying the operations were aimed at tracking down individuals responsible for the genocide who had crossed the border and continued to pose a security threat.

One of those armed organisations, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), remains active in eastern Congo. Rwanda considers the group a direct threat to its national security because it includes individuals linked to the 1994 genocide. Kigali has also accused the Congolese government of collaborating with the FDLR, an allegation that Kinshasa rejects.

Violence escalated again earlier this year when the M23 rebel movement seized large areas of the mineral-rich eastern region, including the strategic city of Goma. Fighting has continued despite a peace agreement between Rwanda and DR Congo that was brokered with support from the United States.