Press Statement on the European Union Sanctions against AFC/M23 and Rwanda officials
Press statement on the European Union late sanctions against AFC/M23 and Rwandan Officials involved in the war in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
The Global Refugee Leaders Forum which is member of COJESKI North Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo gets this opportunity to make public this statement.
On Monday March 17th, 2025 we were finally satisfied to hear that the European Union came back to its senses and opted to impose sanctions against Rwandan and AFC/M23 officials involved in this useless war in Eastern Democratic Republic.
However we highly regret that the European Union woke up too late when more than 10,000 people have been killed in Goma alone and each single night at 4 to 5 people are killed in each town in Bukavu and Goma, more than 7 million living in IDP Camps and more than 5millions Congolese now living in refugee camps in countries which are involved in the war mainly Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi and others. All this happening just because these Congolese are living in villages where there are minerals which can be exploited calmly without harming people. This is where the European Union and other actors at the international level should explore more and the debate should focus on how to take the mineral without harming people and how can these mineral contribute to the development of people in their villages.
Let us remind that it was in 2023 that both the United Nations and the European Union Delegations visited Goma and as actors of the Civil Society we advocated for the approach of sanctions which were not considered as urgent at the moment yet it was at that time that these sanctions imposed now were supposed to play the necessary role. On the same note we strongly decried the minerals deal between the European Union and Rwanda which is also the cause of this war, and surprisingly all those who use these minerals from Rwanda up to European Union are not on the list of sanctions.
We remain concerned that in the current move the European Union is still silent of the root causes of this 30 years’ war in DRC mainly the easily recruitment of refugees into military activities in Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya mainly where the EU inject a lot of money in order to assist the same refugees who are recruited, in the same way the training of Tutsi refugees based in DRC who easily move up to Rwanda and Uganda for military activities yet in most cases the European Union Mission in each country was in one way or the other alerted. As we can observe it, the current leadership of AFC/M23 has either a refugee status or were refugees in one country in the world mainly in Eastern African Countries and this has existed since 1990 and their refugee status has never been threaten. The European Union Tax Payers money should not be used to feed criminals who are presented as refugees.
On contrary we are concerned that refugee leaders who advocated for the protection of fellow refugees in these countries continue to face severe consequences and not much has been done to support their work. In the Democratic Republic of Congo the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is the main actor behind the persecution of human rights defenders involved in the promotion of refugee rights while in Uganda all refugees who are criticize the management of refugees are quickly sanctioned and cannot get any assistance including resettlement. Similarly human rights defenders in the Democratic Republic of Congo who advocated against AFC/M23 and Rwanda especially those based in Goma and Bukavu are living a very difficult situation without support.
We therefore encourage the European Union to deploy more efforts and address the root causes of this war as we have shared in this document mainly put to the end the use of illegal minerals from Rwanda, make pressure to end the militarization of refugees in the region, promote the protection of refugee leaders who are involved in refugee rights and engage more the Democratic Republic of Congo to make the necessary reforms in order to ensure the security of the country.
Thanks
Kulihoshi Msuikami Pecos
Executive Director
Global Refugee Leaders Forum
