M23 rebellion (2012–2013)

The M23 rebellion was an armed conflict in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, that occurred between the March 23 Movement (M23) rebel group and Congolese government forces between 4 April 2012 and 7 November 2013. It ended when a peace agreement was made among eleven African nations, and the M23 troops surrendered in Uganda. The rebellion was part of continued fighting in the region after the formal end of the Second Congo War in 2003. The conflict reignited in late 2021 after M23 rebel leader Sultani Makenga and 100 rebel fighters attacked the border town of Bunagana but failed. A few months later, M23 rebels officially restarted offensive operations, rapidly expanding their control over vast regions of North Kivu.

In April 2012, former National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) soldiers mutinied against the DRC government and the peacekeeping contingent of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO). Mutineers formed a rebel group called the March 23 Movement (M23), also known as the Congolese Revolutionary Army. It was composed of former members of the rebel CNDP, and allegedly sponsored by the governments of the neighbouring states of Rwanda and Uganda.

On 20 November 2012, M23 rebels took control of Goma, a North Kivu provincial capital with a population of one million people. By the end of November that year, the conflict had forced more than 140,000 people to flee their homes, according to the U.N. refugee agency, in addition to the refugees already forced from their homes by previous rounds of fighting in the region. After repelling an ill-organized government counterattack and making some further gains, M23 agreed to withdraw from Goma on their own and left the city in early December.

On 24 February 2013, eleven African nations signed an agreement designed to bring peace to the region. In October 2013, Congo told the UN that the M23 movement was virtually finished after being pushed back to a small area near Rwanda. On 7 November 2013, following significant defeats to a UN-backed government offensive, M23 troops crossed into Uganda and surrendered.