Kigali, Rwanda – Rwanda on Monday branded UN accusations that its army had helped the M23 armed group kill hundreds of civilians in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo “unacceptable”.

Since taking up arms again in 2021 the M23 has seized swathes of the mineral-rich Congolese east from the DRC’s army with Rwanda’s help, triggering a spiralling humanitarian crisis in a region already riven by three decades of conflict.

In August, the UN’s human rights chief Volker Turk said he was “appalled” that the M23 had killed at least 319 civilians in July in the east, despite a ceasefire and ongoing diplomatic push to end the long-drawn-out conflict.

Turk’s Human Rights Office said it had documented multiple assaults by the militia in North Kivu province, resulting in “one of the largest documented death tolls in such attacks since the M23’s resurgence”.

Basing its report on first-hand accounts, the rights body insisted the fighters were “backed by members of the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF)”.

While the Rwandan Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not deny the killings, it said the “gratuitous inclusion of the RDF in these allegations is unacceptable”.

Such claims “bring into question the credibility” and methodology of the United Nations, the statement said.

It added that such “sensational allegations risk undermining the ongoing processes for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in the DRC”.

The row comes only weeks after the Congolese government and the M23 signed a declaration of principle on June 19 reaffirming their commitment to a permanent ceasefire, following months of broken truces.

In the agreement signed in Doha, the warring parties agreed to “uphold their commitment to a permanent ceasefire”, refraining from “hate propaganda” and “any attempt to seize by force new positions”.

It followed a separate agreement signed in Washington by the Congolese government and Rwanda, which has a history of intervention in the eastern DRC stretching back to the 1990s.

Rich in key minerals such as gold and coltan, the eastern DRC has been riven by fighting between rival armed groups and interference by foreign powers for more than 30 years.

Dozens of ceasefires and truces have been brokered and broken in recent years without providing a lasting end to the conflict.

© Agence France-Presse