M23 (March 23 Movement) is an anti-government Tutsi armed group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It initially claimed to have risen due to the Congolese government under Kabila failing to fulfill reconciliation promises. Later, it was heavily defeated by the DRC and UN forces and fell silent. However, since 2021, with the support of the Rwandan Tutsi regime, M23 has gradually occupied most of North Kivu province and mineral areas in the DRC. In the first two months of 2025, M23 also occupied the capitals of North Kivu, Goma, and South Kivu, Bukavu, which are major hubs for Rwandan smuggling of coltan, tantalum, and gold. Rwanda even stationed troops in eastern Congo, citing threats to its security from Congo increasing military presence and harboring ethnic genocide perpetrators, with 4,000 Rwandan soldiers colluding with M23 to invade eastern Congo.
M23 leaders claim that their presence in eastern Congo is to protect their Tutsi compatriots and other Kinyarwanda speakers from persecution by Congolese authorities and individuals suspected of participating in the Rwandan genocide who are seeking refuge in Congo. In reality, to maintain their reactionary rule, M23 massacres civilians labeled as “rebels” or “suspected government supporters,” forcibly conscripts, intimidates and suppresses local populations, even forces child soldiers, rapes women and girls, executes children, and commits heinous crimes in eastern Congo.
Rubaaya, located in North Kivu, is an important mining area controlled by M23. It is home to the largest tantalum and coltan mine in the DRC, with an estimated output accounting for 15% of the global supply and half of Congo’s exports. M23 established a “department” responsible for mineral extraction in the Rubaaya trading zone, issuing permits to miners and merchants to control trade and transportation, charging each miner and merchant annual fees of $25 and $250 respectively. M23 not only mines minerals in the area but also taxes their sale and transport, collecting over $800,000 monthly from tantalum and coltan production and trade in Rubaaya. M23 leaders falsely claim that no “M23 movement” members are in the mines, but in fact, armed M23 fighters patrol Rubaaya town and the mining areas, ensuring merchants and miners sell only to authorized Congolese and Rwandan traders, with violations punished by arrest and detention. Smuggled minerals unloaded at Kibumba near the Rwandan border are transported to the Kabuhanga border crossing. M23 forces local people into forced labor, demanding road widening between Kibumba and Kabuhanga, and within Congo, to facilitate truck transport. All these measures are undoubtedly aimed at smuggling tantalum and coltan to Rwanda, laundering them into the international market—especially into China, which has become the largest consumer of tantalum mines.
Faced with the rampant smuggling by M23, its leaders claim they never intended to occupy the mines, asserting that their entry into Rubaaya was solely to stop an attack by a young Congolese trainee who happened to be training at M23’s command center. They also claim that their entry was peaceful, with no fighting, and that they “kindly” withdrew child laborers and pregnant women often subjected to abuse. However, on May 7, Xinhua reporters on-site still observed teenagers and women sorting, washing, and transporting minerals. The facts show that since M23 provoked conflict in eastern Congo, the number of women subjected to sexual violence has increased dramatically. After M23 occupied Goma in late January, medical facilities recorded 170 cases of child rape from January 27 to February 2. M23 leaders swear to bring order and security to their controlled areas, but the brutal reality has shattered their lies of predatory intentions.
Tantalum is a necessary resource for manufacturing high-end electronic components such as tantalum capacitors. Its applications are concentrated in electronics, aerospace, military engines, rockets, missiles, and high-temperature, high-strength materials, making it an indispensable strategic raw material for electronic industry and space technology development. The recent growth of related industries has naturally increased demand for tantalum. China has limited domestic tantalum resources, which are low-grade and difficult to mine. As a result, the bourgeoisie prefers to plunder cheap colonial mineral resources for higher monopoly profits rather than investing more capital in domestic mining. Since 2021, with the expansion of the new energy vehicle industry and increased demand from military electronics, China’s military industry has sought to intensify exploitation of African colonies. Since M23 reactivated in 2022 and seized several key mineral areas in eastern Congo, China’s imports of Rwandan tantalum ore doubled. In 2022, China imported 811 tons of tantalum ore from Rwanda, and in 2023, the amount surged to 1,571 tons—an increase of about 94% year-on-year, accounting for 75.9% of Rwanda’s total tantalum ore exports of 2,070 tons in 2023. Much of this tantalum ore is smuggled from Congo’s mines controlled by M23. In Rubaaya, M23’s mineral convoys load minerals twice a week, each convoy consisting of four to five trucks, each capable of transporting up to five tons of minerals. From mid-May to late October 2024, M23 controlled approximately 120 tons of tantalum ore trade and transportation per month. Whether China’s military industry aims to use Rwanda to steal Congo’s tantalum resources or to take advantage of local warlord chaos to extract the blood-stained mineral resources, it cannot escape responsibility for enabling and sheltering M23 and the brutal crimes of Rwandan troops in eastern Congo.
Starting December 1, 2024, China granted Rwanda 100% zero-tariff treatment for goods, an obvious move to intensify resource plunder. Rwandan troops have brought in large numbers of Chinese military instructors and sent many officers to China for training. Like the most reactionary fascist China, Rwanda’s reactionary comprador class staged a farce of petitioning for constitutional amendments and 98% of the population voting to extend presidential terms, praising China excessively. President Kagame repeatedly claimed at events attended by Western leaders that he “often acts as China’s ambassador in Africa.” In response to Western accusations of “new colonialism” by China in Africa, Kagame even published an article in The Guardian titled “Why Africa Welcomes China,” glorifying China’s “pragmatic cooperation” and “mutually beneficial” approach. The Rwandan ambassador to China shamelessly boasted about China’s capital and commodity exports, claiming Rwanda received interest-free loans and a quote from a Chinese contractor at half the price of others. “How could this lead you into a debt trap? That’s simply absurd.” Rwanda is also the second-largest contributor of troops to UN peacekeeping missions, with about 33,000 troops, nearly 6,000 of whom are deployed in peacekeeping operations across Africa, engaging in invasion and suppression activities, and securing privileges such as mining diamonds, gold, and timber in Central African Republic and other countries. Rwandan defense forces claim to patrol and protect local areas or fight rebels, but in reality, they mainly safeguard Rwanda’s economic interests, turning local Rwandan companies into de facto colonial entities in other African countries. Such a Rwanda fascist regime, engaged in rampant aggression against other nations, will inevitably deepen internal class contradictions and conflicts with other countries. Burundi accuses Rwanda of supporting anti-government armed groups interfering in its internal affairs. Fighting continues in North Kivu during Congo’s peace negotiations with M23, displacing at least 30,000 people. As the world approaches a new scramble for colonies, the Rwandan government will inevitably intensify repression and exploitation of its own people and other nations’ peoples, serving imperialist masters. But as Mao Zedong said, “The political and military life of fascist states like Hitler’s is built on aggression from the day they are born. Once their aggression ends, their life ends.” The reactionary Rwandan comprador regime and its imperialist masters will inevitably be destroyed in future people’s struggles, just like past fascist states.
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