Democratic Republic of the Congo: The EU must act urgently to avoid a potential regional war

The Renew Europe Group in the European Parliament strongly condemns the occupation of Goma and other territories in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo by the armed rebel group M23 and the Rwanda Defence Forces, a clear violation of international law, the UN Charter and of country’s territorial integrity.

Moreover, the attacks with explosive weapons in populated areas and use of sexual violence against women and girls as a tool of repression and weapon of war, together with the unacceptable recruitment of child soldiers by the various rebel groups, must stop and be addressed by the international community.

In a resolution today adopted by the plenary proposed by our political group, we demand the adoption of urgent measures by the EU, including targeted sanctions, the freezing of the direct budget support to Rwanda, the immediate suspension of the Memorandum of Understanding on Sustainable Raw Materials Value Chains with Rwanda and to effectively ban the entry of all blood minerals into the EU.

MEP Hilde Vautmans (Open Vld, Belgium), Chair of the Delegation to the Africa-EU Parliamentary Assembly and Renew Europe Group’s Coordinator in the Committee on Foreign Affairs, who led the negotiations on the resolution, said:

"We have all seen the chilling images. Images of murdered mums with tiny babies in their arms. The reality there is horrific.

That is why we adopted a strong resolution, carried by a broad majority. The European Parliament calls for sanctions against those responsible for the violence, but also against Rwanda as a country in breach with international law. We want complete freeze of all European aid to Rwanda (including Global Gateway Funding) and the cancellation of the 2025 Cycling Championships in Kigali.

The European Commission and the member states should get humanitarian aid going, secured by a strengthened UN mandate for peacekeeping to restore stability in the region."