Rwanda Rejects Human Rights Watch Report And Rejects Allegations of Human Rights Abuses in DRC

The Government of Rwanda has strongly rejected allegations contained in a recent Human Rights Watch (HRW) report that accused the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) and the M23 rebel group of involvement in forced recruitment, arbitrary detention, torture, killings, forced labor, and the recruitment of children in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The 78-page report, titled “Death Was Everywhere: Arbitrary Detention, Killings, and Forced Recruitment by the M23 and the Rwanda Defence Force,” was published by Human Rights Watch on June 10, 2026.

The report alleges that M23 fighters and Rwandan military personnel committed serious abuses against civilians and captured combatants in eastern Congo between 2024 and 2025. Human Rights Watch called for investigations into what it described as possible war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In a detailed response issued on June 11, Rwanda dismissed the allegations and criticized the methodology used in the report. Kigali argued that Human Rights Watch improperly treated the M23 and the RDF as a single actor and failed to provide sufficient evidence linking Rwandan forces to the alleged abuses. The government stated that allegations against M23 fighters should not automatically be attributed to the Rwanda Defence Force.

Rwanda also accused Human Rights Watch of applying what it described as "selective accountability" by focusing heavily on Rwanda and M23 while giving limited attention to the role of the Congolese Armed Forces (FARDC), the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), Wazalendo militias, and foreign mercenaries operating in eastern Congo.

According to Rwanda's response, the HRW report itself acknowledges that Congolese authorities have supported armed groups opposed to M23, including the FDLR and various Wazalendo factions. Kigali argues that the FDLR, a militia founded by individuals involved in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, remains a major security threat and is at the center of Rwanda's concerns regarding instability along its border.

Apart from Rwanda, in May 2026, the AFC/M23 coalition also accused Human Rights Watch of spreading misinformation, damaging its reputation, and ignoring facts in a manner that it said reflected alignment with the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The coalition was responding to an HRW report published on May 14, which accused its fighters of killing civilians in the city of Uvira, committing acts of sexual violence against women, and abducting people between December 2025 and January 2026.

AFC/M23 argued that the Congolese army continues to cooperate with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), an armed group founded by individuals involved in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, but claimed that Human Rights Watch has consistently failed to address this issue in its reports. The coalition stated that what it described as HRW’s bias had significantly undermined the organization's credibility and called into question the reliability of its findings.