Democratic Republic of Congo CSPA Country Profile • Stimson Center

CSPA Implementation Tracker

Democratic Republic of Congo

Years Listed

Each shaded box corresponds to a year the country appeared on the CSPA list and what types of waivers it received, if any.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has appeared on the CSPA list for fifteen consecutive years beginning in 2010. The U.S. president waived, either in part or in full, CSPA prohibitions against the provision of U.S. arms sales and military assistance to the DRC for all but one of these years, resulting in the provision of more than $72.5 million in arms sales and military assistance. Specifically, the president has waived more than $18.3 million in Direct Commercial Sales, more than $267,000 in Excess Defense Articles, $300,000 in Foreign Military Financing, over $4.4 million in International Military Education and Training, and more than $49 million in Peacekeeping Operations assistance. Due to CSPA prohibitions, the president has denied $15 million in Peacekeeping Operations assistance to the DRC.

According to the U.S. State Department, the Congolese National Army (FARDC) has recruited children, at times through force, for use as combatants, escorts, and porters. Children were also recruited and used by the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) – a former Congolese rebel group – and many were not demobilized following the group’s integration into the FARDC.¹ There were two confirmed cases of the FARDC using children in support roles between April 2018 and March 2019, including for sexual slavery and forced labor.² The following year, there were two reported cases of FARDC members using children in support roles and one case of a child engaged in espionage for the FARDC.³ Between April 2021 and March 2022, the FARDC recruited at least six children and used them as combatants and informants.⁴

In addition, the Congolese armed forces have collaborated with proxy militias – including through the provision of ammunition and uniforms and the coordination of strategy and battlefield tactics – that recruit and use child soldiers.⁵ While the U.S. Department of State did not identify cases of FARDC forces themselves recruiting or using child soldiers between April 2022 and March 2024, the FARDC continued to collaborate with and provide material support to armed groups that forcibly recruit and use child soldiers, including Nduma Defense of Congo-Renouve (NDC-R), Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), Alliance of Patriots for a Free and Sovereign Congo (APCLS), and Nyatura.⁶

The DRC has taken steps to address the issue of child soldier use and recruitment, including by signing a UN Action Plan in 2012 and establishing a Joint Technical Working Group (JTWG) – composed of government ministries, non-governmental organizations, and international organizations – to oversee its implementation.⁷ The JTWG has continued to implement the action plan in the years since.⁸ Additionally, an August 2020 government decree reiterating zero tolerance for FARDC support for arms groups that recruit child soldiers led to the demobilization of some child soldiers, but as of 2024 had not allocated sufficient resources to fully implement the plan.⁹ Although complicity by the government’s armed forces in trafficking crimes remained a significant concern, the military initiated prosecutions for two FARDC soldiers accused of kidnapping children for sexual enslavement in 2020 and sentenced an NDC commander to life imprisonment for child soldier recruitment and use, among other crimes.¹⁰ Steps taken by the government in 2024 included holding trainings on age verification processes for military and law enforcement officers and screening FARDC recruits, which, according to the U.S. State Department, successfully prevented 50 children from entering basic training.¹¹

Since 2021, U.S. presidents have been required to include justifications for CSPA waivers that were issued during the previous year in the annual Trafficking in Persons Report. The DRC’s 2020 and 2021 waiver justifications maintain that “[t]his waiver will allow the United States to provide security assistance that will support improving governance and the rule of law, promoting peace and security, combating corruption, advancing human rights, and creating conditions for greater U.S. investment and economic growth. It also offers an opportunity to improve civil-military relations and influence the next generation of [Congolese National Army] leadership.”¹² Similar language was included in subsequent 2022 and 2023 waiver justifications.¹³

For more information, see the U.S. State Department’s 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report and 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. More information on the situation in the DRC can also be found in the UN Secretary-General’s 2024 annual report on Children and Armed Conflict and 2020 country-specific report on the DRC.

Total Waived and Prohibited

Since the CSPA took effect.

Explore the Data

Country- and program-level data on the number and type of national interest waivers granted, as well as the amount of arms sales and military assistance waived.

Amounts

Waivers

Amounts

Waivers