Overview
- The Democratic Republic of Congo filed an application at the International Court of Justice on Friday, June 26, 2026, charging Rwanda with breaches of multiple treaties over more than three decades of violence in eastern Congo.
- Congo says the alleged crimes include massacres, extrajudicial killings, torture, sexual violence, forced displacement, and ethnic and gender discrimination that targeted civilians across the region.
- The filing accuses Rwanda of dispatching forces and backing armed groups such as M23 to carry out operations inside Congo, a claim supported by U.N. expert reports and by some Western governments.
- Rwanda did not immediately respond to the filing and has repeatedly denied supporting rebel groups, while Kinshasa asks the court to declare Rwanda internationally responsible and to award reparations to the state and victims.
- The case faces legal hurdles and broader diplomatic stakes because Congo has tried and failed twice before at the ICJ, and the filing follows stalled U.S. and Qatari mediation efforts plus recent U.S. sanctions tied to the conflict's economic networks.