Democratic Republic of the Congo

The UN Security Council met Wednesday over the deteriorating security situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and wider Great Lakes region. Despite mediation efforts in Doha and Washington, regional tensions between the DRC, Rwanda, and Burundi remain acute.

The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo and M23 rebel delegates were meeting in Geneva on Tuesday to try to end a war that has devastated the east of the country, as fighting shifts into remote highland areas that are difficult to access and increasingly dangerous, despite repeated ceasefire efforts.

Despite ongoing mediation and a ceasefire agreed by warring factions, security in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s war-torn eastern region continues to deteriorate, the Security Council heard today, as delegates called for efforts to “bridge the gap” between diplomatic gains and the dire reality on the ground.

The Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda have agreed to take "concrete steps" to ease tensions amid a stalled peace process, after talks hosted by the US in Washington. Conflict in eastern DR Congo has continued despite the two countries signing a peace deal with US President Donald Trump last year.

A French aid worker for the United Nations children’s agency Unicef and two other people were killed in a drone strike on a residential building in the eastern city of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The US has accused the Rwandan military of violating a peace agreement that was signed alongside President Trump last year in December.

UN human rights experts on Thursday condemned acts of “extreme violence” committed by the Movement du 23 Mars (M23) armed group against human rights defenders in North and South Kivu provinces of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), warning that activists documenting abuses face escalating reprisals.

A team of UN peacekeepers arrived in the flashpoint eastern Democratic Republic of Congo town of Uvira to prepare the deployment of a ceasefire‑monitoring mission, the force said Tuesday. … On Tuesday, MONUSCO and the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, a grouping of surrounding countries, said in a statement they had deployed a joint exploratory and preliminary assessment mission to Uvira.

The military spokesperson for the M23 rebel group, Lieutenant-Colonel Willy Ngoma, was killed early Tuesday in a drone strike near Rubaya in North Kivu province, multiple sources confirmed, dealing a significant blow to the rebel movement amid ongoing ceasefire efforts. According to a senior M23 official, a regional diplomat, and a Western government adviser cited by Reuters, the strike occurred around 3:00 a.m. near Rubaya—a key coltan-mining town producing approximately 15% of global supply.

The Democratic Republic of Congo said Friday it had "accepted the principle of a ceasefire" involving a "strict and immediate" freeze of positions in the conflict in the east of the country. It did not give a date for when it would take effect, but the announcement comes after mediator Angola called on the Congolese government and the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group to respect a ceasefire starting on February 18.