Delegates from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda met in Geneva to negotiate an end to the conflict in eastern Congo, even as regional leaders called for an immediate ceasefire following a major M23 offensive that captured Goma and displaced thousands.
More than a year after the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda signed an agreement intended to end their confrontation, diplomats are back at the negotiating table in Geneva. Yet on the ground across eastern Congo, the guns have not gone quiet. The diplomatic push runs parallel to a separate dialogue in Qatar between Kinshasa and the Congo River Alliance, the political alliance backing the M23 armed group, creating a complex multi-track peace effort where separate diplomatic tracks intersect with ongoing territorial warfare.
Geneva Talks and the Core Dispute Over the FDLR
At the center of the Geneva negotiations lies a bitter disagreement over security, sovereignty, and the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda. The armed group emerged from the aftermath of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, when members of the former Rwandan army and fighter groups involved in the killings fled into what is now eastern DRC. Rwandan leadership long regarded the group's presence near Rwanda's border as a security threat.
Under the Washington framework, Kinshasa agreed to a process aimed at neutralising the FDLR. Congolese information minister and government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya insisted that the government is fulfilling its commitments, telling Al Jazeera that "the work of neutralising the FDLR through demobilisation is being carried out in accordance with the Washington agreements." Rwandan President Paul Kagame described the agreement on the FDLR as "insufficient" in remarks at the end of last month, while Kinshasa accused Kigali of maintaining "expansionist ambitions" in eastern DRC.
Regional Summits and the M23 Offensive in North and South Kivu
While Geneva hosts bilateral talks, the wider regional crisis prompted a joint summit in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, hosted by the Southern African Development Community and the East African Community on Saturday, February 8, 2025. Rwandan President Paul Kagame took part in person, while Congolese counterpart Felix Tshisekedi appeared via video call. Kenyan President William Ruto, current chair of the EAC, stated during the gathering: "We call on all parties to actualise the ceasefire, and specifically on the M23 to halt further advancement and the armed forces of DRC to cease all retaliatory measures."
The M23 group, which re-emerged in 2021, seized the strategic city of Goma, capital of North Kivu province, on January 26, 2025, and later took Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu. United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk warned that "if nothing is done, the worst may be yet to come for the people of the eastern DRC but also beyond the country's borders." Turk stated that nearly 3,000 people had been confirmed killed and 2,880 wounded since M23 entered Goma, and that final tolls were likely to be much higher, alongside verified investigations into sexual violence including rape, gang rape, and sexual slavery. The offensive has forced columns of panicked civilians toward the border with Rwanda, creating chaotic scenes as residents scramble to cross.
Local Strains and the Search for Tangible Peace
For residents living through the repeated cycles of fighting and displacement in Goma and surrounding towns, high-level diplomacy carries little weight until conditions on the ground improve. Josue Akuzwe Walayi, a pro-democracy activist speaking from Kinshasa, stated that another round of talks will mean little unless people begin to see a change in their daily lives, noting that "people are still waiting for the real benefits of peace that have been trumpeted for over a year." Activists point out that agricultural fields continue to be ravaged in the east, and further displacement is still being reported. As M23 advances on the town of Kavumu, which hosts an airport critical to supplying Congolese troops and serves as the last barrier before Bukavu, local populations face deepening uncertainty over whether the Geneva talks can succeed where previous regional peace talks hosted by either Angola or Kenya have failed and multiple ceasefires have collapsed.
