The European Union (EU) on Monday sanctioned nine individuals in connection with violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a publication in the Official Journal of the EU showed.
Among those on the list are commanders of the Rwanda Defence Force, the leader of the M23 rebel group, Bertrand Bisimwa, and the governor of North Kivu.
The sanctions also targeted the chief executive of Rwanda Mines, Petroleum and Gas Board and Gasabo Gold Refinery in Kigali, which the EU accused of illicitly exporting natural resources from Congo.
Amid a flurry of diplomatic activity, a rebel alliance that includes M23 rebels confirmed it would send a five-member delegation to Tuesday's talks in Luanda, which could mark M23's first direct negotiations with the Congolese government.
DRC President Felix Tshisekedi's office on Sunday said that Kinshasa would send representatives to Luanda, reversing the government's long-standing vow not to negotiate with the group, which it has dismissed as a mere front for the Rwandan government.
Pressure has been growing on Tshisekedi to negotiate with M23 rebels after a series of battlefield setbacks since January. The rebels have seized eastern DR Congo's two biggest cities and a host of smaller localities.
The fighting has killed at least 7,000 people this year, according to the DRC government, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced.
The conflict is rooted in the spillover into DR Congo of Rwanda's 1994 genocide and the struggle for control of the country's vast mineral resources, many of which are used in batteries used for electric vehicles and other electronic products.
The United Nations and international powers accuse Rwanda of providing arms and sending soldiers to fight with the ethnic Tutsi-led M23 rebels. Rwanda says its forces are acting in self-defence against DR Congo's army and militias hostile to Kigali.
A Rwandan government spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the EU sanctions.
Rwanda expels Belgian diplomats
Western countries have taken measures against Rwanda over the conflict, including the withholding of development aid by Britain and Germany, but Kigali has been defiant.
On Monday, it announced it was severing diplomatic relations with Belgium, the former colonial power in Rwanda and DRC, and giving Belgian diplomats 48 hours to leave.
Rwanda's Foreign Affairs Ministry accused Belgium, which has called for strong EU action against Kigali, of "using lies and manipulation to secure an unjustified hostile opinion of Rwanda."
Belgium's Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Prevot said Brussels would reciprocate by declaring Rwandan diplomats persona non grata, calling Kigali's move "disproportionate".
Previous rounds of EU sanctions have targeted M23 commanders and Rwandan army officers.
Zobel Behalal, a senior expert at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, said the latest sanctions were notable in going after Rwanda Mines, Petroleum and Gas Board and the Gasabo Gold Refinery.
"The EU sanctions ... are a recognition that profits from natural resources are one of the main motivations for Rwanda's involvement in this conflict," Behalal told Reuters.
The mines board and the gold refinery did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The European Parliament called on the EU's executive last month to suspend a memorandum of understanding (MoU) from last year that aims to support Rwandan supplies of strategic minerals. The EU's foreign policy chief said the agreement was under review.
