WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The U.S. Government has imposed sanctions on Rwandan Minister James Kabarebe and a leader of the M23 militia movement over atrocities they committed during the civil war in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Rwanda's Minister of State for Regional Integration, Kabarebe is pivotal to Rwanda's support for the March 23 Movement, a U.S.- and UN - designated armed group that has rapidly expanded its territorial control in eastern DR Congo and is responsible for massive level human rights abuses.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) also imposed sanctions on Lawrence Kanyuka Kingston, an M23 and Congo River Alliance senior member and spokesperson, alongside two of his companies registered in the U.K. and France.
At the end of January, M23 and the Rwanda Defense Force captured Goma, the provincial capital of the DRC's North Kivu province in a battle that killed thousands of civilians. M23 and RDF have continued their advances, seizing the Kavumu Airport, a critical transportation hub in eastern DRC, and occupied the city of Bukavu, the provincial capital of South Kivu province.
'Today's action underscores our intent to hold accountable key officials and leaders like Kabarebe and Kanyuka, who are enabling the RDF and M23's destabilizing activities in the eastern DRC,' said Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley T. Smith.
A former RDF general and the current Minister of State for Regional Integration in the Rwandan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kabarebe is a central political and military figure and has played key roles in conflicts in the DRC over the past three decades.
Kabarebe is a Rwandan government liaison to M23 and orchestrates RDF support for the armed group. In addition, he manages much of Rwanda and M23's generation of revenue from the DRC's mineral resources. The U.S. Treasury alleges that he has coordinated the export of extracted minerals from mining sites in the DRC for eventual export from Rwanda.
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