March 23 Movement

The March 23 Movement (French: Mouvement du 23 mars), often abbreviated as M23 and also known as the Congolese Revolutionary Army (Armée révolutionnaire du Congo), is a Congolese Rwandan-backed rebel paramilitary group. Based in the eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it operates mainly in the provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu, which border Uganda and Rwanda. M23 is the principal member of the Congo River Alliance, a coalition of rebel groups in eastern DRC.

M23 was established in 2012 by former members of the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), a Rwandan-backed rebel group largely composed of Rwandan-Congolese fighters. These combatants had previously integrated into the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) under the terms of a 2009 peace agreement, which also called for the transformation of the CNDP into a political party, reintegration of refugees, and incorporation of CNDP personnel into government roles. Local opposition to the CNDP's leadership, accused of past human rights violations, impeded the full implementation of the agreement. On 6 May 2012, a group of these ex-CNDP fighters mutinied, forming M23 and citing the government's failure to uphold the peace accord. The group launched strikes during its first rebellion against the Congolese government that led to the displacement of large numbers of people. On 20 November 2012, M23 took control of Goma, the capital of North Kivu with a population of a million people, but was persuaded to withdraw from the city by the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) because the Congolese government had finally agreed to negotiate with the rebel group. In late 2012, Congolese troops, along with UN peacekeeping troops, retook Goma, and the M23 announced a ceasefire and said that it wanted to resume peace talks.