UN demands Rwanda leave Congo, extends UN peacekeeping mission

The U.N Security Council on Friday condemned an offensive by M23 in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, demanded Rwanda stop supporting the rebels and withdraw its troops, and renewed the mandate for U.N. peacekeepers.



The 15-member council, in a unanimously-adopted resolution, also demanded that Congolese troops stop supporting groups such as the FDLR and that DRC fulfil its commitment to "neutralize the group."



The FDLR was founded by Hutus who fled Rwanda after participating in the 1994 genocide that killed close to one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus. M23 says it is fighting to protect ethnic Tutsi communities in eastern Congo.



The latest M23 advance in mineral-rich eastern Congo came a week after Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame met U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington earlier this month and affirmed their commitment to a U.S.-brokered peace deal.