Tshisekedi wants M23 out of DRC. Who are these rebels? And why is the Congolese leader not saying where they should go?

Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi on Wednesday, September 21, made several demands regarding efforts to curtail insecurity in his country’s volatile eastern region, as he addressed the UN General Assembly.

One was that it is necessary to bring about "the immediate withdraw of the M23 rebels" from occupied areas, and the return of displaced Congolese people.

The Congolese leader did not shed light, possibly due to lack of ample time or perhaps because he intended it, on who the rebels are, or clearly state where the M23 should go after they withdraw. The M23 says it aims to protect its people from oppression in their homeland, DRC. But it is accused by Tshisekedi of opposing his government with Rwanda’s backing.

The M23 or "March 23 Movement" is a Congolese rebel group that was defeated in 2013 and fled to Rwanda and Uganda. The group that fled to Uganda returned to DRC in 2017, but had remained dormant until it resume activities again in late 2021

The M23 group that fled to Rwanda was first disarmed and secured in Rubavu district, near the border with DRC. About two weeks later, Kigali relocated the group – about 680 M23 fighters – to the country’s Eastern Province, far away from the Rwanda-DRC border.

Kigali was doing its best to abide by international norms which dictate that in a situation where armed rebels cross into a country, they must be relocated to a place far from the borderline of their country.

It is important to genuinely examine why the group is taking up arms again after all this time. Its fighters are not Rwandan. One of the M23 grievances is the continued harassment of Congolese Tutsi who are from the same ethnic group that bore the brunt of 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

The renewed conflict is an internal crisis touching the persecution of Kinyarwanda speaking Congolese. The M23 have national grievances linked to lack of security, discrimination of their community and poor governance at large.

The government in Kinshasa, and previous regimes, deliberately refused to recognize that the rebels are legitimate Congolese citizens. Whenever there is a political crisis, Kinshasa claims that these people are Rwandans simply because they speak the same language as the people of Rwanda.

When the two countries’ borders were drawn by the colonialists during the Berlin conference, some Kinyarwanda speakers became part of the Congo. Kinshasa’s continued denial of their rights is a big problem that will not be sorted by disowning them.

In June, the rebels seized territory across North Kivu Province, including the strategic town of Bunagana, on the Uganda-DRC border.

Now, some questions remain. Will the rebels give up the territory they captured? Should they move out of captured territory, where does Tshisekedi want them to go? Will they even budge?