DRC sues Rwanda before the African Court of Human Rights and Peoples for alleged violations in North Kivu

MADRID Dec. 2 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has announced that it has sued neighboring Rwanda before the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), a jurisdiction dependent on the African Union, for alleged human rights violations committed in the province of North Kivu during the mandate of President Paul Kagame.

“For decades of aggression against our country, the looting of our minerals, the rape of our children and our women and the massacres of our populations. Rwanda or Paul Kagame have never been prosecuted through trials,” explained the Deputy Minister of Justice, Samuel Mbemba, as reported by the Actualité portal.

Likewise, it has indicated that a hearing will be held on February 12, 2025 at the ACHPR, based in Arusha, Tanzania. Kinshasa already denounced Kigali in September before the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) for the same reasons.

Last October, the International Criminal Court (ICC) accepted the request of the DRC Government to investigate alleged crimes and violations of the Rome Statute that occurred since January 2022 within the framework of the current conflict in the province of North Kivu, where several armed groups operate.

The main clashes take place between the Congolese Army and local self-defense groups against the rebel group March 23 Movement (M23, made up mainly of Congolese Tutsis supported by Rwanda) and the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), linked to the jihadist group Islamic State, and created in the nineties in Uganda.