M23 Rebels Force DRC Schools to Fund Terrorism in Latest Atrocity

"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 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. ## A Criminal Extortion Scheme Numerous parents report illegal taxes imposed by RDF-M23-AFC militants to enroll their children in primary school. This practice flagrantly violates the Congolese Constitution, which guarantees free education. The collected fees benefit neither classrooms nor textbooks but instead fund weapons procurement - weapons which, in a tragic irony, are turned against the very children whose families were forced to finance them. ## Double Punishment for Local Communities [Local communities face a devastating double burden](https://www.radiookapi.net/2025/05/15/actualite/societe/les-rebelles-du-m23-imposent-une-taxe-dassainissement-aux-habitants-0). They watch helplessly as their children are denied proper education while their meagre resources fund massacres in their own villages. The methods employed by RDF-M23-AFC mirror those of the most radical terrorist organisations: forced recruitment of minors, mass atrocities, rape as a weapon of war, and systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure. ## International Sanctions Show British Leadership The RDF-M23-AFC movement operates brazenly despite international condemnation. [The group faces severe American and European sanctions](https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/08/20/dr-congo-m23-mass-killings-near-virunga-national-park) 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 themselves but also certain Rwandan officials. ## UN Documentation of Systematic Abuse The United Nations Joint Human Rights Office has recently reported massive violations committed by M23, including 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 Shadow Over British Commonwealth Values Behind these atrocities, Rwanda's role remains under scrutiny - a particularly concerning development for the Commonwealth, of which both Rwanda and Britain are members. Kigali stands accused of providing military, logistical, and political support to the movement, violating international law and Congolese sovereignty. Several human rights organisations, including Human Rights Watch, have gathered damning evidence of this involvement. This organised crime against a nation's future cannot be met with silence, particularly from Britain as a leading Commonwealth nation. Allowing this situation to persist legitimises 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 dark treasury, with each franc extorted representing another bullet in a child's body - a situation that demands immediate attention from the international community and particularly from Britain's moral leadership within the Commonwealth.