The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on February 7 filed a lawsuit with the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations’ highest judicial body, accusing Rwanda of involvement in a series of ‘abuses’ spanning three decades in its eastern region.
According to the ICJ statement, the case relates to ‘acts of abuse committed by Rwanda from 1996 to the present’. The filing alleges these acts ‘targeted primarily the Hutu present on the territory of the former Zaire and then Congo, following the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi’ in Rwanda.
The complaint also notes that other Congolese ethnic groups, including the Nyindu, Bembe, Lega, Nande, Hunde and Bashi, were also targeted. The DRC government describes ‘civilians in eastern DRC have been victims of massacres, extrajudicial executions, torture, sexual violence, forced displacement and discrimination’, with a level of suffering that is ‘extraordinary’.
The lawsuit alleges that Rwandan armed forces, along with proxy groups such as the M23/AFC alliance and the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire (AFDL), have conducted unlawful military operations across eastern DRC since the 1994 genocide. These operations targeted refugee camps, villages and urban centers, continuing through the First and Second Congo Wars and persisting to the present day.
The M23 group, the most prominent among those alleged, captured the strategic Congolese cities of Goma and Bukavu in early 2025, displacing hundreds of thousands and shattering decades of fragile peace. The conflict has exposed the failure of recent diplomatic efforts, including a US-mediated peace agreement signed in June 2025 and a subsequent Qatar-brokered ceasefire declaration, both of which failed to stem the violence.
Rwanda has repeatedly denied backing the M23, instead justifying its military presence in eastern DRC as self-defense against the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Hutu militia formed from remnants of those who carried out the 1994 genocide. Kigali accuses Kinshasa of harboring the group, a charge the DRC denies.
UN experts and Western governments have largely accepted the DRC’s position on Kigali’s role in the east, finding significant evidence of Rwandan support for the M23.
The DRC is asking the ICJ to order Rwanda to end all alleged ‘violations’ and provide full reparations to both the state and victims. There was no immediate comment from the Rwandan government. This is the third time the DRC has sought legal action from the ICJ against Rwanda. A previous attempt in 2006 was dismissed after the court found it had no jurisdiction.
