# M23 The armed group that currently controls the two largest cities of eastern Congo and the mine supplying roughly 15% of the world's coltan. ## The name and the lineage M23 takes its name from **23 March 2009**, the date of the peace accord under which its predecessor the **CNDP** — founded by Laurent Nkunda, later commanded by [[Bosco Ntaganda]] — integrated its fighters into the Congolese army. The mutiny of April 2012 was justified as a response to Kinshasa reneging on that accord. The lineage runs back through the RCD of the [[Second Congo War]] to the Banyamulenge rebellion of 1996: the same Congolese Tutsi constituency, the same Rwandan sponsorship, a new acronym roughly every decade. ## Two cycles **2012–13.** M23 captured Goma in November 2012, withdrew under regional pressure in December, and was defeated in November 2013 by a Congolese offensive backed by the UN Force Intervention Brigade. Sultani Makenga surrendered in Uganda. UN Groups of Experts documented Rwandan and Ugandan support, and donors briefly suspended aid to Kigali. **2021–present.** M23 re-emerged in Rutshuru in November 2021 with a roughly thirty-fold increase in activity in 2022. It took Bunagana and Rumangabo, killed some 171 civilians at Kishishe in November 2022, and in December 2023 acquired a political umbrella — the **Alliance Fleuve Congo**, announced by [[Corneille Nangaa]], the former electoral-commission head who had certified Tshisekedi's 2018 win. On **30 April 2024** it seized the [[Rubaya Coltan Mine]]. In January and February 2025 it took Goma and Bukavu. See [[M23 Offensive of 2025]]. By March 2026 it was assessed at roughly **27,000 combatants, a fivefold increase in fourteen months**, running a proto-state administration and refusing to disarm. ## The economics M23 collects roughly **$800,000 a month** from taxing coltan production and trade at Rubaya. The mechanics documented by the UN: traders pay **$4/kg at source and another $3/kg** when the material crosses into Rwanda. UN experts documented at least 150 tonnes of coltan fraudulently exported to Rwanda in 2024, rising toward 120 tonnes a month during 2025. This is what makes M23 structurally different from most eastern Congolese armed groups, which finance principally through **roadblocks and circulation taxes** rather than deposits. Rubaya is a genuine high-value point source. Most of the war economy is not like Rubaya — see [[Conflict Minerals Ecosystem]]. ## Sanctions M23 has been UN-designated since **3 January 2013**. The United States designated Rwandan minister James Kabarebe and M23 spokesman Lawrence Kanyuka in February 2025; intelligence chief John Imani Nzenze in June 2026; and the UN 1533 Committee added Nangaa and the AFC as an entity on 14 July 2026. ## See also [[M23 Offensive of 2025]] · [[Rubaya Coltan Mine]] · [[FDLR]] · [[Paul Kagame]] · [[Rwanda]] · [[Conflict Minerals Hub]]