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Responding to the sanctions, Rwanda’s government said in a statement that such action makes “no contribution toward long-term security, peace and stability for all the countries of the Great Lakes region.�

Securing the border with Congo is “a matter of national security, and that is our only driver,� it said.

Sanctions against Kabarebe are a blow to Rwanda, which for years has evaded the international community's punishment over its aggression in neighboring Congo. The first sign of Washington's evolving policy toward Rwanda came last year when the U.S. described M23 as a Rwanda-backed group and asked Rwandan authorities to remove their missile systems from Congolese territory.

The sanctions announced Thursday finger Rwanda as the primary force behind M23, whose fighters now say they want to overthrow Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi. The U.S. State Department statement said Kabarebe, who is officially the minister of state in charge of regional integration, is the Rwandan official who liaises with M23 in handling revenue from exports of minerals from Congo.

Kabarebe was sanctioned along with Lawrence Kanyuka Kingston, a spokesman for M23. Two companies linked to Kanyuka and registered in the United Kingdom and France were also sanctioned.

The U.S. and the U.N. sanctioned M23 years ago.

M23's “aggression has undermined the territorial integrity of (Congo),� the U.S. State Department statement said. “With Rwanda’s support, it has also threatened, injured, killed, and displaced thousands of innocent civilians, cost the lives of three U.N. peacekeepers and wounded several others.�

Kabarebe is revered in Rwanda and reviled in Congo. His current role in government came after he retired from the Rwandan military, which he once served as chief of defense staff. He is also a former minister of defense and a close ally of President Paul Kagame. He was among those by Kagame's side when his rebels entered Kigali, the Rwandan capital, to end the 1994 genocide by the Hutu majority against the Tutsi.

But Kabarebe is also a key figure in the intrigue that has led to decades-long instability in eastern Congo. After Rwanda-backed rebels led by Laurent-Desire Kabila removed dictator Mobutu Sese Seko from power in Kinshasa, the Congolese capital, in 1997, Kabarebe was installed as army chief of staff.

But Kabila fired Kabarebe in 1998, turning on Rwanda and igniting a war that killed the most people since World War II as regional armies fought against each other.

Rwanda has long denied support for M23, even though Kagame has asserted that the rebels deserve to be supported. Kagame insists that any efforts to end the conflict must address security concerns stemming from lawlessness in eastern Congo as well as persistent discrimination against Congolese Tutsis. M23's top military commander, Sultani Makenga, is an ethnic Tutsi born in eastern Congo's North Kivu province, where the rebels resurfaced in 2021 after a period of calm.

M23 is the most prominent of more than 100 armed groups vying for control of eastern Congo’s trillions of dollars in mineral wealth. Around 4,000 Rwandan troops are backing up M23, according to U.N. experts.

The rebels made territorial advances in a lightning offensive, first seizing last month and then the second-largest city, Bukavu, on Sunday.

Regional leaders have urged talks between M23 and the Congolese government. Tshisekedi has previously ruled out such dialogue, saying the rebels were a Rwandan proxy army.

Last year, Congo's government reached a short-lived ceasefire deal with Rwanda that was mediated by Angola, and the U.S. is urging the warring parties to return to talk under that deal.

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Rodney Muhumuza reported from Kampala, Uganda.