March 23 Movement (M23)

The March 23 Movement (M23), or the Mouvement du 23 Mars in French, is an armed group that operates in the North Kivu province of the eastern DRC, where it has become the most active non-state armed group and often fights alongside the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF). North Kivu is crucial to the security interests of countries in the Great Lakes region, where numerous armed groups operate. For the M23, this includes the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, which originated with many Hutu militants that carried out the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Further, influence over local political power in North Kivu permits armed groups to leverage taxation and the flow of natural resources in the region.

The origins of the M23 date back to the period following the end of the Second Congo War in 2006, when Rwandophone militants split into two groups: those willing to return to Rwanda and those who preferred to remain in the DRC. The latter formed the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) under former Rwandan Patriotic Front militant Laurent Nkunda. The CNDP, which was the precursor to the M23, claimed to protect Congolese Tutsi and received support from the Rwandan government that the M23 still enjoys today. The CNDP eventually signed a peace accord with the Congolese government on 23 March 2009 that transformed the CNDP into a political party and integrated many fighters into the Congolese forces (FARDC). However, the integration process between the FARDC and CNDP broke down in 2012, and defecting fighters established the M23. The group’s name comes from the failed negotiation process and claims by former CNDP militants that the promises made to them in the 2009 agreement had not been kept.