Sultani Makenga

Sultani Makenga (born 25 December 1973) is a Congolese rebel leader and the military chief of the March 23 Movement (M23), a rebel group based in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Early life and initial rebel career Sultani Makenga was born on 25 December 1973, in the town of Rutshuru, North Kivu province, located in the eastern part of the Congo. He is an ethnic Tutsi.

He joined the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in 1990 and fought in the Rwandan Civil War. This was quickly followed by further sanctions from the United States for recruiting of child soldiers. He has denied that M23 used child soldiers, characterizing the accusations from those such as Human Rights Watch as propaganda. He and his troops were held in a secret location. In early 2017, he tried to restart a guerilla war in the DRC with 200 men and succeeded, and some of his former militants were even hired by the Congolese government to crush protests.

According to a 2024 report from the UN group of experts, he was traveling to Uganda and received active support for the M23 from the Ugandan military. In August 2024, Makenga was sentenced to death in absentia by a Congolese military court.