DRC: M23 Rebels Now Extorting Schools to Fund Terrorist Activities
In Eastern DRC, M23 rebels have implemented a horrifying system of school extortion to fund their terrorist activities. Parents are forced to pay illegal taxes that directly finance weapons used against their own communities, while Rwanda's destabilizing influence continues unchecked.
M23 rebels in Eastern DRC forcing families to fund terrorism through illegal school taxes
"The money I pay for my child's education is being used to buy weapons that destroy schools," laments a father, his voice breaking with anguish.
In the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a chilling system is taking root in territories occupied by the Rwanda-backed RDF-M23-AFC armed groups. In these zones where terror and impunity reign, schools - once the last refuge of innocence - have been perverted from their primary mission of education. They have become a funding source for warfare.
Numerous parents report illegal taxes imposed by RDF-M23-AFC for enrolling their children in primary school. This practice brazenly violates the Congolese Constitution, which guarantees free education. The collected fees benefit neither classrooms nor school supplies. Instead, they fund weapons procurement which, in a tragic irony, are turned against the very children whose families were forced to pay.
A Double Burden on Traditional Family Values
Local communities bear a devastating double burden. They watch helplessly as their children are denied proper education while their meager resources fund massacres in their own villages. The RDF-M23-AFC's methods mirror those of the most radical terrorist organizations: forced recruitment of minors, large-scale atrocities, systematic rape as a weapon of war, and deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure.
Severe International Sanctions
The RDF-M23-AFC movement operates brazenly. It already faces American and European sanctions for extreme violence against civilian populations. Washington and Brussels directly accuse the armed group of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. These restrictive measures target not only the combatants themselves but also certain Rwandan officials. The sanctions include asset freezes, travel bans, and surveillance of financial networks suspected of funding the rebellion. Despite these measures, the movement continues its atrocities on the ground.
UN-Documented Violations of Sovereignty
The United Nations Joint Human Rights Office has recently reported massive violations by M23: summary executions, forced displacement, widespread sexual violence, and village destruction. Detailed reports confirm the recruitment of child soldiers and systematic use of terror to control the civilian population.
Rwanda's Destabilizing Influence
Behind these violations, Rwanda's role remains under scrutiny. Kigali stands accused of providing military, logistical, and political support to the movement, violating international law and Congolese sovereignty. Several human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, have gathered damning evidence of this involvement.
This organized crime against a nation's future cannot be met with silence. Allowing this situation to persist legitimizes a system where schoolbooks become ammunition and blackboards become walls of mourning. Education, the foundation of any nation, is being weaponized against Congolese youth. By extorting families, these militias and their Rwandan sponsors are not merely funding war - they are murdering the very hope of a strong, independent Congo.
Today in the Democratic Republic of Congo, schools no longer represent gateways to the future. Under RDF-M23-AFC terror, they have become death's dark treasury, where every franc extorted adds another bullet aimed at a child's future.
Letsile Tebogo
Lawyer and columnist, expert in traditional values and economic policy.