Honour the Washington Accords: End the War in Congo, Stop Sending Rwanda's Youth to Die

Two days ago, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo signed the Washington Accords, a binding commitment to end the fighting in eastern Congo, to cease support for armed groups, and to respect each other's territorial integrity. The ink on that agreement is barely dry. The Global Campaign for Rwandans' Human Rights calls on the government of Rwanda to honour it, in word and in deed. Respect what you signed The Washington Accords were not a favour to Rwanda. They were a promise to the people of both countries that the bloodletting in eastern Congo would stop. President Kagame's government must now: - Cease all support to the M23 and every other armed group operating in Congolese territory;

• Withdraw Rwandan forces from the DRC, as the agreement demands;
• Allow the joint verification mechanisms to operate without obstruction;
• End the recruitment, financing and arming of proxies through Rwandan territory. An agreement Rwanda intends to honour does not need negotiating loopholes. One it intends to evade does. Stop fueling conflict in Congo United Nations experts have repeatedly documented Rwandan troops fighting alongside the M23 in North Kivu, and Rwandan supply lines sustaining the group's war. Thousands of Congolese civilians have been killed, and entire towns emptied, in an offensive that would be impossible without Kigali's backing. Rwanda's leaders describe this as protection of Rwandan territory. No agreement, no border incident and no historical grievance can justify a neighbouring state's army occupying parts of another sovereign country. The war in eastern Congo must be ended by Rwanda, not merely blamed on it. Stop sending Rwanda's young to die for minerals Behind the rhetoric of security lies the arithmetic of profit. Eastern Congo sits on coltan, gold, tungsten and tin, the minerals that power the world's phones and weapons. UN investigators and international journalists have traced the smuggling routes that move these minerals through Rwandan territory, and traced the war gains of a conglomerate closely tied to President Kagame's family and inner circle. Meanwhile, the ones paying the price are Rwanda's own children. Young Rwandans, many of them poor, some allegedly recruited under false pretences, are sent across the border to fight in a war they did not choose and do not benefit from. Some come back in coffins, unannounced and unexplained. Their families receive no accounting, no acknowledgment, no mourning sanctioned by the state. Rwanda's youth are not raw material. Their lives must not be spent to secure mining concessions for a presidential dynasty. Peace benefits Rwanda more than war Rwanda does not need Congolese minerals to prosper. It needs open borders, trusted neighbours, and a generation of young people who can build a future at home rather than die abroad. The Washington Accords offer Rwanda a path back to legitimacy and partnership. Breaking them will isolate Rwanda further, invite sanctions that are already being discussed in Washington and Brussels, and cost Rwandans opportunities no victory in the Kivus could ever replace. Our call We call on President Kagame's government to implement the Washington Accords fully and immediately: withdraw, disarm the proxies, open the verification mechanisms, and end the extraction of minerals through violence. We call on the United States, the African Union and the United Nations to make every dollar of partnership and every line of credit conditional on full compliance. And we stand with the Congolese civilians and the Rwandan soldiers' families, both betrayed by a war that enriches the few and buries the many.