The Democratic Republic of Congo has filed a case against Rwanda at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations' principal judicial body for resolving disputes between states, accusing its neighbour of violating at least four international conventions over more than three decades of conflict in eastern Congo. Congolese Justice Minister Guillaume Andali announced the filing on Friday, saying Kinshasa is seeking accountability for alleged breaches of conventions covering genocide prevention, racial discrimination, women's rights, and torture. The DRC is asking the court, based in The Hague in the Netherlands, to order Rwanda to cease all alleged violations and pay reparations to both the Congolese state and its victims.

At the heart of the dispute is Congo's accusation that Rwanda has dispatched its own forces and backed a succession of armed proxy groups — including the M23 rebel movement — to conduct unlawful military operations on Congolese soil. The alleged crimes committed against civilians, Kinshasa states, include massacres, extrajudicial killings, torture, sexual violence, and forced displacement on an exceptional scale. UN experts and Western governments have broadly supported Congo's position, finding that Rwanda has provided material support to M23, which last January captured large swathes of mineral-rich eastern Congo, including the regional capital Goma. Rwanda has consistently denied backing any rebel groups operating in Congo.

The roots of the conflict stretch back to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, in which approximately 800,000 people — predominantly from the Tutsi community — were killed by ethnic Hutu extremists. The aftermath sent an estimated one million Hutus fleeing across the border into what is now the DRC, stoking ethnic tensions and drawing Rwanda's army into two invasions of its neighbour. One Hutu armed faction, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), which includes remnants of those responsible for the genocide, remains active in eastern Congo. Rwanda describes the FDLR as a genocidal militia and accuses Kinshasa of fighting alongside it — an allegation the DRC denies.

This is the third time Congo has brought a case against Rwanda before the ICJ, and legal analysts caution that it faces significant procedural hurdles. A first case was dropped by Kinshasa in 2001; a second was dismissed in 2006 because Rwanda had not recognised the court's jurisdiction. Rwanda has still not granted the ICJ automatic jurisdiction, and without Kigali's consent, judges could again rule the case inadmissible before examining its merits. The DRC did, however, successfully pursue a similar case against Uganda over its occupation of eastern Congo in the late 1990s, eventually winning reparations — a precedent Kinshasa will likely point to.

The legal filing opens a new front in one of Africa's longest-running conflicts at a delicate diplomatic moment. Rwanda and the DRC signed a US-brokered peace agreement in December aimed at de-escalating the fighting, but the deal has yet to bring stability to eastern Congo. The ICJ will now examine the application and determine whether it has jurisdiction to proceed.