Source: United States Senator for New Jersey Cory Booker
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Policy, and U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken regarding the rebel group M23’s troubling activities in and around the Democratic Republic of Congo, and renewed reports of the group’s use of child soldiers, and the consequences of such under the Child Soldier Prevention Act (Public Law 110–457). In the letter, the Senators support the implementation of further sanctions on M23 under Public Law 112-239 and Rwanda and other state actors supporting M23 under Public Law 110–457.
“Since the beginning of renewed hostilities, more than 500,000 people have been forced to flee their homes, with many civilian deaths,” wrote Senators Booker and Durbin in a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. “Reports of civilians being arbitrarily executed in front of their families, torture, forced conscription, and destruction of homes are just some of the horrors that M23 is inflicting on the people of the DRC. In December, massacres in the settlements of Kishishe and Bambo resulted in the deaths of at least 171 civilians and more than 20 children. Such reports come as M23 displays offensive capabilities more in line with a conventional army than a disorganized insurgent group. Its capabilities have enabled its members to overrun MONUSCO-supported Congolese-held positions and hold territory. Direct state support for M23 enables its reign of terror across the Eastern DRC. The United States must act to hold those that enable M23 accountable.”
“We welcome the imposition of further sanctions on M23 under the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 (P.L. 112-239) and on Rwanda and other state actors supporting M23 under the Child Soldier Prevention Act. We also request a full accounting of all assistance given to Rwanda since 2019,” the Senators continued.
Reports by the United Nations and established human rights organizations indicate that M23 is receiving a regular supply of modern arms and munitions that allows its members to regularly strike targets over long distances and execute precision fires against aircraft. These reports have found that the munitions and equipment have, in large part, come from the government of Rwanda. A U.N. report from December 2022 found that M23 fighters have been recruiting not only in occupied Congolese territory but also in Rwanda and Uganda.
Full text of the letter is available here