Rwanda has deployed electronic warfare systems to disrupt and spoof GPS signals in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to the latest report from the United Nations Group of Experts on the DRC.
Released on 7 January the report said GPS jamming and spoofing were experienced from late May to early August 2024 near areas controlled by the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) and the Mouvement du 23 Mars (M23) Congolese rebel group that it supports. It gave co-ordinates for two electronic warfare systems that were deployed inside Rwanda close to the border and a third in Kanyabayonga soon after it was captured by the RDF and M23 on 27 June.
The co-ordinates for one of the systems deployed in Rwanda were for a hill overlooking the border city of Goma, which is the main base for the Armed Forces of the DRC (FARDC), UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO), and Southern African Development Community Mission in the DRC (SAMIDRC) in North Kivu province. The second system was deployed 98 km to the south at Kamembe Airport, which Janes has previously reported the RDF uses as a base for its Bayraktar TB2 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
UAV crashes
The Group of Experts report noted that a UAV operated by MONUSCO was targeted by GPS jamming before it crashed on 29 October. It included a map that showed the UAV drifted off course after it began to experience jamming near Mpeti, approximately 50 km southwest of the co-ordinates it gave for the electronic warfare system deployed at Kanyabayonga.
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