Global Pulse

标签： Africa

非洲

  • Boks drop Feinberg-Mngomezulu to bench for All Blacks rematch

    Boks drop Feinberg-Mngomezulu to bench for All Blacks rematch

    Just one week after a lopsided opening Test defeat to the All Blacks in Johannesburg, South Africa’s Springboks have made sweeping changes to their starting lineup for this Saturday’s highly anticipated rematch in Cape Town, dropping underperforming fly-half Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu to the reserves bench. Under new head coach Dave Rennie, a revitalized All Blacks side cruised to a comfortable 33-16 victory in the series opener, putting the defending world champions on the back foot early in the four-match series billed as “Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry”.

    Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who struggled throughout the first 80 minutes, was credited with five possession turnovers and repeatedly found himself exposed in defensive gaps before being shifted to full-back in the second half. That underperformance opened the door for 32-year-old two-time Rugby World Cup winner Handre Pollard, who has been recalled to the starting fly-half position for the second Test.

    In addition to the playmaker switch, two injury-forced changes have been made to the starting XV: injuries to Cheslin Kolbe and Grant Williams mean Ethan Hooker will start at wing, while Cobus Reinach takes over at scrum-half. There is still uncertainty surrounding the availability of captain Siya Kolisi, who is recovering from a hamstring injury and in line for a return to the back row. To cover for any possible setback in Kolisi’s recovery, Erasmus has named Paul de Villiers as a backup blindside flanker.

    One of the most notable inclusions on the Springboks’ replacements list is 39-year-old Deon Fourie, who came off the bench to play 77 minutes in the Springboks’ 2023 Rugby World Cup final win over the All Blacks. If called into action this weekend, Fourie will earn his first international cap since that iconic tournament victory.

    Reflecting on the opening Test, head coach Rassie Erasmus acknowledged the mixed performance from his side, saying that unforced errors at critical moments, not a lack of scoring opportunities, cost South Africa a positive result. “There were a handful of positives and negatives last week, but the main thing that let us down was that we created so many chances, but mistakes at crucial times cost us,” Erasmus said. “We’ll put in a lot of work this week to ensure that we are sharp in that regard this weekend because if we had used even some of those chances, the result could have been completely different.”

    Across the All Blacks camp, the big story of the week is the imminent international return of star playmaker Richie Mo’unga, who has not featured for New Zealand in three years after signing with Japanese club side Toshiba Brave Lupus. With the 32-year-old now set to return to domestic rugby with the Crusaders and Canterbury, and an injury to Billy Proctor opening up a spot in the selection pool, Mo’unga is now in line for an immediate Test recall as the All Blacks look to close out the series with a 2-0 lead.

    Mo’unga, who was the starting fly-half for New Zealand’s 2023 Rugby World Cup campaign and earned a spot in World Rugby’s 2023 Team of the Year, will make his first appearance in a black jersey this week, starting at 10 in a midweek tour match against the Johannesburg-based Lions provincial side. The playmaker says his desire to return to international rugby was sparked during an unexpected moment last year, when he watched a Six Nations match from a Japanese karaoke bar, and he has spent months mentally preparing for his comeback.

    “I’m competitive; I want to be the best,” Mo’unga said. “I know that there’s a process to that, and at this point in time, the process looks a bit different around preparing someone else [All Blacks’ current first-choice fly-half Ruben Love] to be the best. I’m really competitive, but I’m also a team man. Whoever gets the role, gets the role, and if it’s not me, I’ll do anything I can to help them succeed. This game was always coming for me. There was always going to be a return. I wasn’t sure when it was, but mentally I’ve prepared for my return in the black jersey, and I’m ready.”

    The high-stakes second Test between South Africa and New Zealand is set to kick off this Saturday in Cape Town, with the All Blacks targeting a stranglehold on the four-match series and the Springboks desperate to even the score on home soil.

  • Four arrested over suspected poisoning of elephants in Kenya

    Four arrested over suspected poisoning of elephants in Kenya

    A devastating poaching-adjacent wildlife crisis has unfolded in southern Kenya’s iconic Amboseli ecosystem, leaving at least 18 elephants dead and triggering a major cross-border investigation that has resulted in four arrests, Kenya Wildlife Service has confirmed to the BBC.

    The detained individuals include three Kenyan nationals and one Tanzanian national, all held on suspicion of orchestrating the mass poisoning that has rocked one of Africa’s most important elephant habitats over the past two months. Among the fatalities was Genghis Khan, an 11-year-old bull elephant whose remains were found just outside the boundary of Amboseli National Park, a stark reminder of how close this crisis has come to core protected areas.

    Investigators are currently probing the theory that the elephants ingested lethal cyanide after raiding nearby tomato farms grown with illegally imported pesticides. Preliminary laboratory analysis of stomach content samples has already confirmed the presence of cyanide traces in affected animals. Most of the deceased elephants were adult females and their young calves, and all displayed clear symptoms of paralysis before death — a clinical sign that wildlife authorities say further supports the cyanide poisoning hypothesis.

    The farms in question are located in Kenya’s Kimana region, a critical wildlife corridor that connects Amboseli National Park to the larger Tsavo National Park. This expansive transboundary landscape, the Amboseli ecosystem, crosses the porous Kenya-Tanzania border and supports a migrating population of more than 2,000 elephants that move through the area annually in search of fresh water and forage.

    In recent years, expanding agricultural activity has brought human settlements and farms right up against the ecosystem’s boundaries, creating frequent conflict as elephants raid crops for food when wild forage becomes scarce. Smugglers regularly move pesticides banned for use in Kenya across the undefended border with Tanzania to supply local farms, a illegal trade that has flown under the radar for years. While Kenya does have formal regulations restricting the use of dangerous unapproved agrochemicals, enforcement remains chronically under-resourced, and little policy attention has been paid to the lethal spillover effects these substances have on protected wildlife.

    All four suspects have since been released on bail as investigations continue, with authorities working to build a full picture of the poisoning network and prevent further mass deaths of Kenya’s threatened elephant population.

  • Zambia courts sealed off as election petition deadline looms

    Zambia courts sealed off as election petition deadline looms

    As Zambia approaches the legal deadline for filing formal challenges to the recent presidential election results, widespread closures of court facilities across the country have thrown the post-election process into deep uncertainty, with the main opposition candidate vowing to pursue legal action over alleged voting irregularities.

    Multiple court premises, including the High Court in the capital Lusaka, the Supreme Court that also hosts the Constitutional Court, and several lower local courts, have been cordoned off and closed to public access. Heavy, unusual deployments of police officers have been documented at these sealed sites, with court perimeters blocked by tape to prevent entry. When lawyers arrived at the courthouses on Monday, the final day for submitting election petitions, they were repeatedly ordered to leave the area. One attorney told the BBC that three armed men approached his vehicle, identified themselves as law enforcement, and directed him to depart immediately. It remains unclear when the closed court facilities will reopen to the public, and requests for comment from Zambia’s police force and judicial branch have not yet received a response.

    The controversy stems from the August 13 presidential election, where incumbent President Hakainde Hichilema secured a second five-year term with 60% of the popular vote. Main opposition challenger Brian Mundubile, who finished second with 38% of the vote, has rejected the official outcome and pledged to challenge the results in court, citing widespread procedural irregularities. Currently, Mundubile is in hiding at a secure location, guarded by an international human rights organization, after claims of targeted threats against his life. His seclusion comes amid a turbulent post-election period marked by violence and political repression: one senior opposition figure, former cabinet minister Mutotwe Kafwaya, was shot and killed during a security force raid in Lusaka, with officials claiming Kafwaya was killed in an exchange of fire during a targeted operation. Multiple other opposition members have also been arrested in recent weeks.

    The death of Kafwaya and the wave of arrests have sparked widespread outcry from domestic and international human rights groups. Amnesty International has labeled the killing “deeply alarming” and called for an immediate, thorough, and impartial independent investigation. The Law Association of Zambia has also raised “grave concern” over the incident and joined demands for an independent probe into the circumstances of Kafwaya’s death.

    While court access is blocked and the election challenge hangs in limbo, the incumbent government has moved forward with plans for Hichilema’s inauguration, scheduled for September 1 at Lusaka’s National Heroes Stadium. Zambia’s Ministry of Youth and Sport has already issued media invitations for journalists to join a cabinet official for an inspection of inauguration preparations at the venue, indicating the ceremony is expected to proceed as planned even if a legal petition is ultimately filed. If an opposition election petition is successfully submitted before the deadline, it could theoretically delay the inauguration, though the court closures have thrown that entire process into doubt.

    Regional and international election observers who monitored the August 13 vote have acknowledged that voting day was largely peaceful, but they have raised multiple serious concerns about the integrity of the contest. The European Union’s election observation mission found that unequal restrictions on opposition activity created an “uneven playing field” ahead of the poll, echoing broader worries about late changes to electoral rules, shrinking media freedom, and unequal access to media platforms for opposition candidates.

    On the vote tallying process, the EU mission documented multiple procedural failures: a heavy military presence at many tallying centers that created an intimidating atmosphere for voters and polling staff, multiple reported attacks on tallying facilities, widespread delays in updating official results on public tally sheets after vote counts were announced, weak verification processes that failed to cross-check digital vote entries against physical paper records, and frequent pauses in tallying proceedings as local officers waited for instructions from national electoral commission headquarters. Critically, the mission also noted that the Zambian Electoral Commission did not publish disaggregated results broken down by individual polling station, a lack of transparency that the mission says undermines public trust in the final outcome. The EU has publicly called for “maximal transparency” from Zambian authorities to resolve lingering questions about the official results.

  • Nigerian film star Ogogo dies from cancer aged 66

    Nigerian film star Ogogo dies from cancer aged 66

    One of the most iconic figures in Yoruba-language cinema and a beloved veteran of Nigeria’s world-famous Nollywood industry, Taiwo Hassan — universally known by his stage name Ogogo — has passed away at the age of 66 following a battle with cancer.

    The news of his death was confirmed by his daughter, Kira Hassan, during a heartbreaking live broadcast on Instagram Sunday. Visibly emotional, Hassan shared that her family was still struggling to process the loss of their patriarch.

    Fellow Nollywood veteran Prince Jide Kosoko later shared details of Ogogo’s funeral arrangements, confirming that the actor will be laid to rest on Monday in his hometown in Ogun State, southwestern Nigeria, in accordance with Islamic burial customs that require interment shortly after death.

    Before rising to household-name status across Nigeria and beyond, Ogogo built an entirely different career working as a mechanic for 13 years at the Ogun State Water Corporation. He first began balancing his day job with acting roles in 1981, gradually building his reputation as a talented performer on screen. It was not until 1994 that he made the leap to full-time acting, devoting himself entirely to the craft he had grown to love.

    Over his decades-long career, Ogogo collected numerous industry awards and earned widespread critical acclaim for his standout performances. One of his most celebrated roles came in the hit film *Anikulapo*, where he portrayed the Alaafin of Oyo — the historically most powerful and revered monarch in Yorubaland — a role that cemented his status as one of Yoruba cinema’s most skilled and recognizable stars.

    In the wake of his passing, current and former colleagues, as well as generations of fans, have flooded social media with tributes honoring Ogogo’s legacy, his contributions to Nigerian film, and the warm personality that made him a favorite across audiences. Additional reporting for this story was completed by BBC News Yoruba.

  • Four arrested over boxing champion’s murder in South Africa

    Four arrested over boxing champion’s murder in South Africa

    South African law enforcement officials have taken four people into custody in connection with the fatal shooting of celebrated two-time world boxing champion Zolani Tete, who was killed in an ambush outside his Eastern Cape home last Friday. The 38-year-old former titleholder, who had recently completed a four-year doping ban and was actively training for a much-anticipated comeback to the ring, was gunned down in Mdantsane as he waited in his vehicle for his residential gate to open. A 27-year-old woman who was travelling with Tete was also wounded in the attack and remains hospitalized for treatment.

    According to official accounts of the incident, two armed attackers wearing balaclavas exited a separate vehicle and opened fire with multiple rounds at Tete and his passenger. The first suspect, a 22-year-old man taken into custody on Saturday, is scheduled to make his initial court appearance on Monday, where he will face formal charges of murder and attempted murder. The three remaining suspects were arrested on Sunday, and are set to appear in court this coming Tuesday. Two of these three suspects are already facing charges of unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition, though it has not yet been confirmed whether they will also face murder and attempted murder charges connected to Tete’s killing.

    Tete leaves behind a decorated combat record in professional boxing, with a career total of 29 wins, four losses, and one no-contest ruling across 34 bouts. He claimed his first world title in 2014, when he won the IBF super-flyweight belt, before holding the WBO bantamweight crown from 2017 to 2019. He also secured a place in Guinness World Records for the fastest knockout in the history of professional title fights, stopping his opponent Siboniso Gonya just 11 seconds into their 2017 bout. Tete fought eight times across the United Kingdom during his career, including memorable bouts against Paul Butler in 2015 and Jason Cunningham in 2022. That 2022 knockout win over Cunningham was later overturned to a no-contest after Tete tested positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol, leading UK Anti-Doping Agency to issue a four-year competition ban that expired just last month.

    In the weeks following the end of his ban, Tete had returned to full training to prepare for a comeback fight, his manager Mla Tengimfene confirmed following his death. Since news of the champion’s killing broke, tributes have poured in from across South Africa’s sporting and political communities. South Africa’s current Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie called the loss a devastating blow for the nation, saying “South Africa has lost one of the finest fighters it has ever produced.” Former Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula also honored Tete’s legacy, remembering him as a “great South African who has made an immense contribution in the sport of boxing”.

  • Uganda and Burundi military officials visit Israel to discuss Gaza troop deployment

    Uganda and Burundi military officials visit Israel to discuss Gaza troop deployment

    Diplomatic and military discussions centered on expanding the planned U.S.-backed international security force for Gaza have advanced this week, with delegations from Uganda and Burundi holding closed-door talks with Israeli and U.S. Board of Peace officials last week in Tel Aviv, multiple anonymous sources have confirmed to the Associated Press. The proposed force is a core component of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace framework crafted to sustain the region’s fragile current ceasefire.

    A senior Board of Peace official, who requested anonymity as talks with potential contributing nations remain confidential ahead of any final agreement, confirmed that the Ugandan and Burundian delegations held knowledge-sharing sessions during the visit. Uganda is moving quickly to finalize its participation plans, after its parliament formally approved a troop contribution for the mission earlier this month, while Burundi has not yet concluded its internal negotiations, though senior officials have signaled clear intent to join the initiative.

    A separate Burundian military source, also speaking anonymously to the AP, confirmed the country’s delegation was led by three senior military officers, adding that Burundi’s leadership remains committed to moving forward with the deployment. Details on the exact size of the contingent both nations will contribute, as well as any potential financial or strategic compensation they will receive for their participation, have not been made public, and military spokespeople for both countries have not responded to repeated requests for comment from international media.

    If Burundi formalizes its commitment, the two East African nations will join a growing list of countries that have already pledged personnel to the force, including Morocco, Kosovo, Kazakhstan, and Albania. To date, Uganda has pledged approximately 1,200 troops, Morocco has committed up to 500, and the three remaining nations collectively have offered around 80 personnel. Indonesia, which previously announced plans to deploy 8,000 troops — the largest proposed contribution by any nation — has put its deployment plans on hold following the U.S.-Israeli military strike on Iran.

    The overall target for the full force is 20,000 troops, which will be led by U.S. Major General Jasper Jeffers. Current commitments remain far below this goal, and overall progress on standing up the force has moved at a slow pace amid ongoing political gridlock over the ceasefire terms.

    The proposed peace framework, first announced by Trump last month, outlines a path forward that requires Hamas to fully disarm, Israel to withdraw all military forces from Gaza, and the deployment of the International Stabilization Force to regions of Gaza that will be administered by a new technocratic Palestinian committee. The force’s core mandates include monitoring ceasefire compliance, training local Palestinian police forces, and supporting the safe delivery of humanitarian aid to the territory’s civilian population.

    The ceasefire that went into effect in Gaza last October has stalled in recent weeks, deepening gridlock over the core terms of the peace plan. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the U.S.-brokered proposal, stating that Israeli forces will not withdraw from the roughly 60 percent of Gaza that they currently control until Hamas is completely eliminated and disarmed. Earlier this month, a U.S. delegation led by senior negotiator Jared Kushner held separate marathon talks with Hamas leadership and Netanyahu to break the impasse; while Hamas has agreed to the terms of the framework, Israel has yet to offer any concrete commitment to move forward with the plan.

    Security analysts note that Uganda and Burundi bring unique practical experience to the proposed mission, having deployed thousands of troops to long-term peacekeeping operations in Somalia as part of an African Union-led counterterrorism mission against the al-Qaida-affiliated extremist group al-Shabab. Paul D. Williams, director of the security policy studies program at George Washington University, explained that both governments have a proven track record of tolerating high casualty rates during peacekeeping deployments without pulling out their forces.

    Williams added that as the Somali peacekeeping mission draws down, both nations are actively seeking new deployment opportunities to secure ongoing financial and material support for their national militaries. “Deploying to Gaza with U.S. backing is a logical and attractive opportunity for both governments to sustain that support,” he noted. A senior Ugandan military officer with direct knowledge of the deployment preparations also confirmed to the AP that the process of selecting troops for the Gaza mission is already underway.

    Diane Falzetta contributed additional reporting for this story from Nairobi, Kenya.

  • Guinea rubbish landfill collapse kills 30

    Guinea rubbish landfill collapse kills 30

    A catastrophic collapse of a massive garbage mound at one of Conakry, Guinea’s largest waste disposal sites, has claimed the lives of at least 30 people and left dozens more injured, government officials confirmed this week. The disaster, which unfolded around 2:00 a.m. local time in the capital’s densely populated Dar-es-Salam neighborhood, followed a night of intense heavy rainfall that destabilized the already precarious waste mound, which slid onto adjacent informal residential homes.

    Beyond the confirmed fatalities, 22 people have been registered as injured, with six of those suffering critical, life-threatening conditions that require urgent medical care. Local media interviews have already captured devastating personal stories of loss: one resident told reporters that all five of her children were killed when the rubbish mound engulfed her home.

    In response to the emergency, the Guinean government announced it has mobilized “significant” human and material resources, including units from the national military, to launch urgent search and rescue operations for survivors still potentially trapped under mounds of shifted debris. Rescue teams have been spotted working around the clock at the site, using heavy excavators to carefully sift through tons of scattered garbage, while anxious local residents gather near the perimeter waiting for updates on missing loved ones.

    Guinea’s Prime Minister Mamadou Oury Bah traveled directly to the disaster site shortly after the collapse to personally assess the scale of the damage and coordinate ongoing search efforts. Early on-scene reports from local neighborhood leader Lancine Sylla to Agence France-Presse had already painted a grim picture, with Sylla warning that the death toll would likely climb before recovery efforts were complete. “We have pulled out 18 bodies that were taken to the morgue,” Sylla told AFP in initial on-the-ground comments.

    This is not the first deadly disaster to strike this same waste site: a previous landslide at the Conakry landfill killed 10 people back in 2017, raising urgent questions about longstanding safety risks at the facility and the vulnerability of informal settlements built in close proximity to the unstable waste mound. Rescue operations are still ongoing as of this report, and aid organizations are preparing to support displaced families who lost their homes in the collapse. Officials have repeatedly warned that the confirmed death toll is expected to rise as recovery teams continue to clear debris and search for people still unaccounted for.

  • A landslide at a landfill in the capital of Guinea kills 30 people, officials say

    A landslide at a landfill in the capital of Guinea kills 30 people, officials say

    In the early hours of Sunday, a catastrophic collapse of a massive garbage mound at Conakry’s largest municipal landfill left 30 people dead, according to updated casualty figures published by Guinea’s central government. Regional authorities confirmed that persistent heavy rainfall, which began pounding the site around 2 a.m., saturated the compacted waste at the Dar Es Salem open-air dump. This saturation destabilized the mound, triggering a deadly waste landslide that swallowed informal shanty homes built directly adjacent to the site.

    Six people were pulled from the debris with severe injuries, and multiple residential structures were completely destroyed in the incident. Search and rescue teams remained deployed at the site in the immediate aftermath, working to locate any additional survivors trapped under the rubble.

    New details have emerged that the sprawling open-air waste facility—Conakry’s largest landfill—was officially scheduled to be permanently closed on the very same day the disaster struck, revealed Lieutenant Colonel Baldé Mamadou Bailo, a sanitation officer with the country’s military engineering battalion. Local residents living in informal settlements around the landfill perimeter had previously received formal eviction notices ordering them to leave the high-risk area. While many households complied and moved out ahead of the closure, a large number of families chose to remain on or near the site and were present when the collapse occurred.

    Dienabou Touré, Guinea’s Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralization, visited the disaster site shortly after the collapse and confirmed that the government would move quickly to relocate all remaining families from the surrounding area to safer, designated housing. “We will ensure that the remaining families are relocated elsewhere,” Touré stated during her on-site address.

  • Kejelcha breaks men’s half marathon world record by 29 seconds

    Kejelcha breaks men’s half marathon world record by 29 seconds

    On Sunday, Ethiopian long-distance running star Yomif Kejelcha delivered a history-making performance at a World Athletics-sanctioned road racing event in Buenos Aires, shattering the existing men’s half-marathon world record to reclaim the title he briefly lost earlier this year.

    The 29-year-old cross the finish line in a blistering 56 minutes and 51 seconds, cutting a full 29 seconds off the previous benchmark set by Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo back in March. Kiplimo had clocked 57:20 at a race in Lisbon to take the record from Kejelcha, who had first set a world leading mark of 57:30 at the Valencia race in October 2024. Kejelcha’s new record still awaits official ratification from global governing body World Athletics, but the on-course result has already sent ripples through the international distance running community.

    This sensational result adds another landmark achievement to Kejelcha’s already decorated athletic resume. A world track championships silver medalist in the 10,000m track event, Kejelcha already holds the world record for the men’s 10,000m road race. Earlier in 2025, he also made global running history as one of the first male athletes to finish a marathon under two hours in record-eligible conditions, taking second place just 11 seconds behind Kenya’s Sebastian Sawe at the London Marathon, where Sawe crossed the line in 1:59:30.

  • DR Congo and M23 rebels agree roadmap for peace talks

    DR Congo and M23 rebels agree roadmap for peace talks

    After five days of intensive closed-door negotiations in Switzerland, the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel movement have reached a historic breakthrough: a formal roadmap to guide future peace negotiations aimed at ending decades of brutal conflict in eastern DRC. The joint agreement, announced publicly following the talks, commits both sides to pursue good-faith negotiations toward a lasting, comprehensive peace and durable conflict resolution, while establishing two new oversight bodies to monitor compliance with existing ceasefire terms.

    The negotiated timeline builds on the U.S.-brokered Doha Framework Agreement signed by both parties in 2025, a deal that failed to stop escalating violence just months after it was finalized. Despite the optimistic step forward, core disagreements continue to divide the two sides: thorny issues including international sanctions on M23 leadership, the release of civilian and combatant detainees, and the scheduling of long-promised political reforms remain unresolved, casting a shadow over the implementation process.

    The latest round of talks brought together a broad coalition of international and regional mediators, including representatives from Qatar, the United States, Togo, the African Union Commission, and host nation Switzerland. Per the joint statement released at the conclusion of negotiations, the new progress-review mechanism will be tasked with tracking compliance with all obligations outlined in the 2025 Doha framework, and addressing emerging implementation challenges as they arise.

    Mediators and negotiating parties have agreed to a set of sequenced, time-bound steps for upcoming negotiations, with both sides committing to approach remaining disputes with flexibility and creative problem-solving to avoid a return to open conflict. A dedicated ceasefire monitoring mechanism has also been formalized, with its administrative secretariat already fully operational. The mechanism’s first on-the-ground verification mission is scheduled to launch this coming Monday in Minembwe, a conflict-battered region of South Kivu that has seen repeated outbreaks of fighting in recent months.

    Even with repeated public commitments to a ceasefire over the past years, heavy fighting has persisted across both North and South Kivu provinces, with Kinshasa and M23 regularly trading accusations of ceasefire violations. The decades-long conflict in eastern DRC is deeply intertwined with long-running geopolitical tensions between DRC and its eastern neighbor Rwanda. Rwanda has repeatedly justified its involvement in the region by arguing that DRC has failed to disarm the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), an armed opposition group that Kigali views as a direct threat to Rwandan national security.

    In contrast, the DRC government denies providing any support to the FDLR, and has long presented concrete evidence that Rwanda provides direct military backing to M23, including supplying frontline troops and advanced weaponry to the rebel group. The conflict escalated dramatically in January 2025, when M23 forces launched a major offensive that seized control of large swathes of eastern DRC, including the major regional hub of Goma and two key civilian and military airports. Over the 30 years of sustained conflict in the region, an estimated tens of thousands of people have been killed, and more than hundreds of thousands of civilian residents have been forced to flee their homes, seeking safety in overcrowded displacement camps or neighboring countries.

    Eastern DRC holds vast reserves of coltan and other critical minerals that are essential inputs for the global electronics and clean energy industries, making the stability of the region strategically important for global supply chains. Rwanda has repeatedly and publicly denied claims of backing M23, despite widespread documentary and on-the-ground evidence of its military involvement, and has consistently framed any cross-border military presence as a defensive measure to counter threats from anti-Rwandan armed groups operating from DRC territory.