The United States Secretary of State, Antony J. Blinken, called on M23 and Rwanda to cease hostilities and withdraw from their bases in the DRC. J. Blinken made the announcement after a phone call on Friday, December 27, with President Félix Tshisekedi on the situation in eastern DRC, in which the United States called on M23 and Rwanda to cease hostilities and withdraw from their positions in the DRC. 

The American dignitary thanked President Tshisekedi for his commitment to the Luanda process, led by Angolan President João Lourenço, and said he was ready to attend the talks on December 15. 

Blinken was not afraid to confirm America’s position, saying that the M23 movement and Rwandan forces must cease hostilities and withdraw from all their bases in eastern DRC. Antony J. Blinken also encouraged President Tshisekedi to continue to fire on the M23 rebels in order to weaken them and prevent them from continuing to seize various territories. Blinken’s announcement comes just a week after the United States representative to the Security Council expressed concern that M23 continues to seize large areas of North Kivu. 

Recently, the Rwandan military denied reports that a soldier named Hakizimana Iradukunda Jean de Dieu, who was part of the Rwandan Army’s special forces unit and was captured during the fighting between Mombasa and Ndoluma, was captured in the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

The DRC government accuses Rwanda of openly supporting the M23 rebels, and Congo confirms that there are also its troops in the forests of eastern DRC.

However, Rwanda denies any support for M23, instead expressing concerns that the country is hosting the FDLR, which is mainly made up of former Rwandan rebels who invaded Rwanda in 1994 and who continue to spread genocide ideology, which is linked to the atrocities against the Tutsi ethnic group living in eastern DRC. 

The M23 movement has been demanding direct negotiations with the Congolese government, although the Kinshasa government has continued to block this request.