The United States has sanctioned Rwanda's Ministry of Defence and the Zigama Credit and Savings Society bank, accusing both of bankrolling and directing support for the M23 rebels who have seized large parts of eastern Congo. The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced the designations on Wednesday, in the sharpest step yet in Washington's campaign to force Kigali to honour the peace deal it signed last year.
Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent left no doubt about what Washington expects. "Today, the United States makes good on President Trump's promise to hold Rwanda accountable for its commitments under the Washington Accords for Peace and Prosperity," Bessent said. "Rwanda must halt its support for M23 and withdraw its troops from eastern DRC."
Both names now go on the Specially Designated Nationals list. Every asset they hold in the United States, or in the hands of Americans, is blocked and must be reported to OFAC. American persons are barred from dealing with either entity, anything owned 50 percent or more by them is blocked as well, and breaches can draw civil or criminal penalties — OFAC can impose civil penalties on a strict liability basis, and foreign financial institutions risk sanctions exposure of their own if they keep doing business with the pair.
The case against the Ministry of Defence is that it sits on top of Rwanda's entire security machine. The ministry is the umbrella organisation for Rwanda's security services, including the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF), which Washington sanctioned in March. At the ministry's direction, the Treasury says, the RDF has deployed thousands of troops across eastern Congo's North and South Kivu provinces, where they fight alongside M23 and hand the rebels military equipment, supplies, logistical support and training. The RDF has also brought advanced weaponry onto the battlefield, including surface-to-air missile systems and jamming equipment that put civilian aircraft at risk.
The State Department delivered the same message in its own announcement of the measures, saying Rwanda must stop the actions in eastern Congo that violate what it signed up to in Washington.
Zigama is the money side of the same machine. The Treasury describes it as a Rwandan financial institution that operates on behalf of the country's security services. It facilitated payments to entities in China and other countries for weapons, ammunition and military equipment for the RDF, and paid for RDF travel and accommodation tied to training. It also moved the rebellion's gold: a Zigama branch enabled gold taken from mines in M23-controlled territory in South Kivu to be transported to Kigali, under the strict oversight of Rwandan government forces, and the bank facilitated financial transactions for M23 and its political wing, the Congo River Alliance, amounting to tens of millions of dollars.
The war those payments feed has been running since M23's rebellion re-emerged in 2021. The group, designated by both the United States and the United Nations, has carried out extrajudicial killings, unlawful detentions and torture in the areas it holds. In early 2025 it captured Goma and Bukavu, the capitals of North and South Kivu, and went on to take mining areas including gold mines in South Kivu and Rubaya, the vast coltan-mining area in North Kivu. Civilians in those areas have faced forced labour, dangerous working conditions and illegal "taxation," in a humanitarian crisis marked by mass displacement. On October 12, the rebels' political alliance announced a new name — the Front for the Refoundation of the Nation, successor to the Congo River Alliance.
The minerals are the economic engine of the occupation. Gold and coltan taken from rebel-held ground do not stay there: minerals sourced from M23-controlled territory are integrated into supply chains in Rwanda, a country whose own domestic mining capacity is smaller than the export volumes reported since the rebellion began. Washington had already flagged those supply chains in a formal statement of concern in July 2024. Shutting Zigama out is meant to make the trade behind the fighting harder to finance, insure and ship.
Rwanda denies backing the rebels, and its answer to Wednesday's sanctions pointed at Congo's own unmet obligations. Government spokesperson Yolande Makolo said the Washington Accords contain commitments on the neutralisation of the FDLR — the Hutu militia rooted in the 1994 genocide that operates from Congolese soil — that remain unmet. "Rwanda remains ready to fully implement the Washington Accords, concurrently with the willingness of the DRC to fulfill those commitments, and with the mediator holding all parties accountable," she said. Zigama's chief executive did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Congo welcomed the move. Its foreign ministry said: "These sanctions send a clear message that Rwanda cannot act with impunity," adding that Rwanda "must honor its commitments under the Washington Accords, respect the UN Charter, and withdraw its tens of thousands of troops from the DRC." Congo's embassy in Washington publicly thanked the Treasury and Bessent, saying the action shows that violations of the Accords carry tangible consequences.
For Washington, this is enforcement of a peace deal that carries President Trump's name. The Washington Accords for Peace and Prosperity were signed by the Congolese and Rwandan heads of state on December 4, 2025, in a U.S.-brokered process meant to end the fighting in the east. Alongside the peace track, the Accords built a regional economic framework — more trade and investment, and greater transparency in the critical-minerals supply chains that run through the Great Lakes region. Wednesday's action goes after both pillars of Rwanda's support at once: the ministry that directs the soldiers, and the bank that pays for the weapons and moves the gold that funds the rebellion.
The designations also reach beyond the two names on the list. Anyone who contributes funds, goods or services to a blocked person risks exposure themselves, and non-U.S. persons are prohibited from causing Americans to violate the sanctions, conspiring to do so, or engaging in conduct that evades them — a warning aimed at the foreign buyers, shippers and intermediaries who keep the weapons purchases and the gold trade running.
It is also the latest turn of a ratchet. Treasury acted against a network tied to illegal mining in Congo in August 2025, sanctioned the RDF itself and four of its senior commanders in March, and took further actions in April and June, including against a Rwandan gold-refining network. The Treasury's stated purpose is behavioural, not punitive: the goal of sanctions, it says, "is not to punish, but to bring about a positive change in behavior." The test of that is now on the ground in the Kivus — whether the troops, the equipment and the money actually stop moving.
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