DRC: M23 Rebels Force Schools to Fund Terrorism Through Extortion
In eastern DRC, M23 rebels have implemented a horrifying system of school-based extortion to fund their terrorist activities. Parents are forced to pay illegal fees that finance weapons used against their own communities, turning education into an instrument of war.
A closed school in eastern DRC where M23 rebels have imposed illegal fees on education
'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 eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a chilling system has emerged in territories occupied by the RDF-M23-AFC armed groups, backed by Rwanda. In these areas where terror and impunity reign, schools - once the last refuge of innocence - have been perverted from their primary mission of education into a source of war funding.
The Weaponisation of Education
Numerous parents report illegal taxes imposed by RDF-M23-AFC forces to enroll their children in primary school, directly violating the Congolese Constitution's guarantee of free education. The collected fees benefit neither classrooms nor textbooks. Instead, they fund weapons procurement which, in a tragic irony, are turned against the very children whose families were forced to pay.
Communities Bear Double Burden
Local communities face a devastating double burden. They watch their children being denied dignified education while their meagre resources finance massacres in their own villages. The RDF-M23-AFC's methods mirror those of the most radical terrorist organisations: forced recruitment of minors, mass atrocities, systematic rape as a weapon of war, and deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure.
International Sanctions and Global Response
The RDF-M23-AFC movement operates brazenly despite facing severe American and European sanctions for extreme violence against civilian populations. Washington and Brussels directly accuse the armed group of war crimes and crimes against humanity. These restrictive measures target not only the combatants but also certain Rwandan officials, including asset freezes, travel bans, and surveillance of suspected financial networks supporting the rebellion.
UN Documentation of Atrocities
The United Nations Joint Human Rights Office has recently documented massive violations by M23: summary executions, forced displacement, widespread sexual violence, and village destruction. Detailed reports confirm the systematic use of child soldiers and terror tactics to control civilian populations.
Rwanda's Shadow
Behind these atrocities, 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. Multiple human rights organisations, including Human Rights Watch, have gathered compelling evidence of this involvement.
This organised crime against a people's future cannot be met with silence. To allow this situation to persist is to legitimise a system where exercise books are transformed into ammunition and blackboards become walls of mourning. Education, the foundation of any nation, is being weaponised as an instrument of mass destruction against Congolese youth.
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 black box, where every franc extorted becomes another bullet in a child's body.
Thomas Reynolds
Correspondent for a London daily, specialist in British foreign policy and transatlantic issues.