HRW Accuses Rwanda and M23 of Forced Recruitment in DRC

Rwandan military forces and the M23 armed group have conducted a large-scale campaign of forced recruitment and abusive detention of thousands of captured combatants and civilians in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released today.

The 78-page report, titled “‘Death Was Everywhere’: Arbitrary Detention, Killings, and Forced Recruitment by the M23 and the Rwanda Defence Force,” details widespread roundups and arrests across North and South Kivu provinces, along with severe abuses at the Rumangabo and Tshanzu training camps in North Kivu from mid-2024 through December 2025. According to the findings, M23 fighters, backed by Rwandan military personnel, committed murder, torture, corporal punishment, forced labor, and the use of child soldiers. These acts constitute war crimes and warrant investigation as possible crimes against humanity.“

The Rwandan-backed M23 is running so-called training camps in eastern Congo, where recruits have suffered abuse and torture, at times with deadly consequences,” said Clémentine de Montjoye, senior Great Lakes researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Regional bodies and partner governments should press Rwanda’s authorities to stop these grave abuses and support accountability for those responsible.”

HRW based its conclusions on interviews with 102 former detainees who escaped the camps, were deployed with M23 forces, or surrendered to the Congolese army, as well as accounts from witnesses, United Nations officials, military and intelligence sources, media, and diplomats. Researchers spoke with former detainees in person in Uganda and several Congolese towns, and by phone in M23-controlled areas.

The report is further supported by verified, geolocated videos and photographs, satellite imagery of the camps, and 3D reconstructions used to estimate the scale of detainee transports.

Systematic Forced Recruitment

Since 2024, M23 has carried out forced recruitment drives targeting both civilians and captured fighters. The efforts intensified in 2025 after the group seized large territories and key eastern cities. Thousands of Congolese soldiers, allied Wazalendo militia members, police officers, and ordinary civilians, including children as young as 12- were swept up, sometimes under the pretense of voluntary enlistment but often through outright coercion.

M23 fighters established ambushes and checkpoints on roads, raided hospitals, churches, and schools, and summoned residents with false promises or threats. Those detained were loaded onto trucks and transported to the Rumangabo and Tshanzu camps.

Conditions inside the camps were dire. Detainees faced beatings, inadequate food, water, medicine, and medical care. Former detainees reported summary executions and violent punishments for minor infractions, such as attempting to drink from puddles, eat without permission, or relieve themselves. One civilian held for five months told HRW: “If we were caught trying to drink from puddles on the ground, the guards beat us violently.”

Children were held at Tshanzu camp for military training and forced labor, with some selected to guard and beat other detainees. Multiple witnesses described mass graves; one former detainee at Tshanzu said he was forced to bury bodies seven times as a student who had “never seen a dead body before.” While the exact death toll remains unknown without full excavation of graves, former detainees estimated that hundreds died from harsh conditions, beatings, and executions throughout 2025.

Rwandan Involvement and Legal Responsibility

Former detainees identified Rwandan soldiers among trainers and commanders by their uniforms, equipment, accents, and limited proficiency in French or Kiswahili. Military, intelligence, and UN sources corroborated the direct participation of Rwandan forces.

HRW concludes that Rwanda’s extensive military presence and control over M23 operations meet the legal threshold for belligerent occupation under international humanitarian law. As a result, Rwandan officials could bear criminal liability for abuses committed by M23 forces at the camps.The Rwandan government and M23 have consistently denied such allegations but have failed to conduct credible investigations.

The report notes that other armed groups in eastern Congo, including some previously backed by Rwanda, have also engaged in forced recruitment and child soldier use, with little accountability from either Congolese or Rwandan authorities.

Detentions in Congo and Calls for Accountability

In May 2026, HRW visited Makala prison in Kinshasa and conducted phone interviews with scores of civilians forcibly recruited by M23 who later surrendered to Congolese forces. Thirty-four detainees, including 14 children, reported being held and interrogated by Congolese military intelligence for days to a month before transfer to the prison. On June 9, HRW wrote to Congo’s justice and defense ministers seeking clarification on the legal basis for these detentions.

The organization urged Rwanda’s international partners, including the UN, African Union, European Union, and United States, to publicly address the cycle of abuses and review military assistance to Rwanda. It called for targeted sanctions against responsible M23 and Rwandan commanders, as well as support for domestic and international justice mechanisms.

Congolese authorities should preserve evidence from the Rumangabo and Tshanzu camps and pursue prosecutions, HRW said. The International Criminal Court’s Office of the Prosecutor, already examining the situation in eastern Congo, should specifically investigate these forced recruitment campaigns and camp abuses as war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“The forced recruitment of civilians, including children, is part of a decades-long cycle of abuse in eastern Congo,” de Montjoye added. “Concerned governments need to show that the atrocities being committed by Rwanda and the M23 in their training camps require urgent action to stop them and show no one is beyond the reach of justice.”