On instructions from my Government, I have the honour to provide you with the following information:

– In July 2025, more than 300 Congolese civilians were killed in several localities in Rutshuru territory, North Kivu Province, following attacks carried out by the Mouvement du 23 mars (M23), in flagrant violation of the ceasefire reaffirmed in the Doha Declaration of Principles of 19 July 2025 and the Washington peace agreement of 27 June 2025.

– Information gathered by the relevant departments and corroborated by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights shows that most of the victims – many of them women and children – were defenceless civilians, who were summarily executed. In the period from 2 July to 2 August 2025 alone, these abuses were accompanied by serious violations including more than 125 cases of sexual violence; hundreds of cases of forced recruitment, including of children; more than 300 acts of torture; looting and burning of property; and the transfer of unidentified populations to areas under the control of M23. These crimes have taken on a clear ethnic dimension: civilians targeted for their community affiliation, particularly Hutu, have been executed or forcibly displaced, in what amounts to an attempt at ethnic cleansing.

– The most recent report of the Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo unequivocally highlights the structural link between M23 and Rwanda. The report also establishes that Rwanda actively provides military, logistical and operational support to M23, which continues to directly fuel massacres, causes the forced mass displacement of populations and exacerbates the persistent instability in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In view of this irrefutable evidence, the Democratic Republic of the Congo calls upon the Security Council to strengthen the pertinent sanctions regime without delay by including in the relevant list the M23 commanders and Rwandan officials involved in these atrocities. Only by exerting targeted and effective pressure can the Council uphold resolution 2773 (2025) and help to create an environment conducive to peace, regional security and greater accountability.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo stresses that no peace process can succeed if these serious and repeated violations continue to go unpunished. Protecting the lives of human beings, regardless of the community to which they belong, remains non-negotiable and essential to government action. The Security Council cannot remain a spectator in the face of growing impunity: justice and rigorous sanctions are primary – and not secondary – conditions for any lasting and balanced settlement.

The Government therefore emphatically calls upon the Security Council to fully assume its responsibility by taking, without delay, all the necessary measures to ensure the establishment of the independent commission of inquiry provided for in Human Rights Council resolution S-37/1, adopted on 7 February 2025 at the Council’s thirty-seventh special session. It is imperative that this commission establish the whole truth about the crimes committed in this context of aggression; unambiguously identify the relevant perpetrators, sponsors and accomplices; and ensure that those individuals are brought to justice. The commission must also recommend accountability measures, including the transmission of information to the sanctions committees of the Security Council, to ensure that its conclusions lead to binding decisions and help to prevent the recurrence of ethnically motivated massacres.

I should be grateful if you would have the present letter circulated as a document of the Security Council.