When a Congolese footballer made a brief gesture after scoring in an east African league match last weekend, it felt like little more than a talking point among the spectators. Yet the gesture by midfielder Héritier Luvumbu at the game in Kigali has prompted a dramatic reaction from Rwanda that has renewed scrutiny of a regime accused of stoking the world’s deadliest conflict as it enters a volatile new phase. The episode began when Luvumbu, who plays for Rayon Sports in Kigali, scored from a free kick against Police FC. His brief celebration – covering his mouth with his left hand while pointing his fingers to his temple, mimicking a gun gesture – expressed solidarity with those killed in the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). By some estimates, more than six million lives have been lost in the deepening humanitarian crisis. Players in DRC’s national team had performed a similar gesture before their recent Africa Cup of Nations semi-final against Ivory Coast. But on Tuesday, Luvumbu was dramatically suspended by Rwanda’s Football association or six months, then had his contract severed. Two days later, he was apparently forced to leave Rwanda, returning across the border to DRC where he was soon visited by the country’s sports minister. But Rwanda’s reaction has been seen as overly defensive at a time when the east African state is increasingly linked to a brutal rebel group that is causing havoc in DRC. The notorious M23 militia has effectively encircled Goma – a city of two million people and the strategic capital of eastern DRC – cutting off key roads and access to food and healthcare. If the M23 seize one of the biggest cities in Africa’s second-largest country, international pressure will intensify on Rwanda to halt its alleged financial support of a militia linked to indiscriminate killing, rape and mass displacement in DRC. The M23 took up arms in 2012, ostensibly to protect the Tutsi population in eastern Congo, which had long complained of persecution and discrimination. The US and UN are among those who accuse Rwanda of arming and training M23, making it the best equipped and organised of dozens of armed groups roaming DRC’s troubled east. Rwanda has consistently denied the allegation. Against a backdrop of intensifying violence, protests were reported across eastern DRC last week, as Rwanda and western countries were accused of complicity over M23. The treatment of Luvumbu has raised questions about the UK government’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda. The UK supreme court ruled in November the plan unlawful because asylum seekers sent to Rwanda would face the risk of being returned to their country of origin. Prime minister Rishi Sunak insisted Rwanda was safe and has introduced legislation that would override the supreme court judgment. Rwanda’s apparent expulsion of Luvumbu has raised fresh questions over his assertion it is a safe place to send people. On Saturday, the charity Freedom from Torture issued a statement saying Rwanda’s reaction to Luvumbu ought to force Sunak to rethink his strategy. “This incident once again places a spotlight on the government’s immoral plans to send refugees to Rwanda,” said Freedom from Torture’s Kolbassia Haoussou. “Instead of shamefully pushing ahead with a policy that will place survivors of torture, it’s time for the prime minister to draw a line in the sand and put this ‘cash for humans’ deal behind him, once and for all.” Even the UK government’s own documents attempting to support Sunak’s Rwanda policy recently conceded that the country has “issues with its human rights record around political opposition to the current regime, dissent and free speech”. Last Monday a parliamentary rights watchdog said the prime minister’s Rwanda plan was “fundamentally incompatible” with the UK’s human rights obligations.