The U.S. Treasury Department on Monday imposed sanctions on Rwanda’s military and four senior officials, accusing them of backing the March 23 Movement (M23) armed group in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said the Rwanda Defense Force (RDF) has been “actively supporting, training, and fighting alongside” M23 and that the rebels’ offensives, including the seizure of provincial capitals Goma and Bukavu and strategic mining sites, would not have been possible without RDF support. 

M23, which was previously blacklisted by both the United States and United Nations, “is responsible for horrific human rights abuses, including summary executions and violence against civilians,” the State Department said in an accompanying statement. 

The sanctions follow the December announcement by President Trump that he had brokered the so-called “Washington Accords,” billed as a peace deal between the Rwandan government, led by President Paul Kagame, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, led by President Felix Tshisekedi. 

On Monday, the White House accused Rwanda of breaking that deal by allowing M23 to capture Uvira, a strategic city on the DRC-Burundi border. U.S. officials accused RDF of providing direct operational support to M23, including by deploying GPS-jamming systems, air defense equipment, and drones, as well as training and recruitment support. 

Rwanda’s government decried the new sanctions, saying that the U.S. had misrepresented the facts and that the restrictions unfairly targeted only one party involved in the conflict, according to a report by The New York Times. In a statement cited by the newspaper, the Rwandan government accused the DRC of deploying drones and ground forces, as well using ethnic militias as mercenaries. 

OFAC’s designations include four individuals described as senior RDF officials: Vincent Nyakarundi, identified by Treasury as the RDF Army Chief of Staff, Ruki Karusisi, a major general and commander of the 5th Infantry Division, Mubarakh Muganga, the RDF Chief of Defense Staff, and Stanislas Gashugi, appointed as Special Operations Force commander in March 2025.

“President Trump is the peace president, and Treasury will use all tools at its disposal to ensure that the parties to the Washington Accords uphold their obligations,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement Monday. “We expect the immediate withdrawal of Rwanda Defense Force troops, weapons, and equipment.” 

The department has been mulling sanctions against Rwanda since January, when OFAC began preparing designations targeting senior Rwandan and M23 leaders, The Wall Street Journal reported last week. State Department officials told the Journal that, absent some punitive measure against Rwanda, the newly-inked peace deal could collapse. 

Catching wind of the sanctions, Kagame reached out to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who subsequently called the White House and the office of Vice President JD Vance to argue that Rwanda had made good on a deal to deliver critical minerals to the United States and should not be undermined with new sanctions, WSJ reported. Such restrictions, he argued, could put Rwanda’s participation in the accords in peril, according to the report. 

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