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27-04-2025
KINSHASA/ KIGALI: Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo have signed an agreement to respect each other’s sovereignty and come up with a draft peace deal by 2 May.
The deal was signed by the two countries’ foreign ministers in Washington, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also present at Friday’s ceremony.
Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been displaced in recent months as Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have seized swathes of mineral-rich territory in eastern DR Congo.
After losing territory, the government in Kinshasa turned to the US for help in exchange for access to the minerals.
Relations have been so poor between DR Congo and Rwanda that the meeting in Washington and a promise to resolve disputes through dialogue is a sign of progress.
The text of the agreement says both sides now expect significant investments facilitated by the US government and private sector.
Despite the talks, fighting reportedly continued on Friday in North Kivu province.
Earlier this week, DR Congo and the M23 group said they were committed to peace, expressing hopes that a permanent ceasefire could be reached.
Officials in eastern DR Congo say some 7,000 people have been killed there since January.
The decades-long conflict has intensified since the start of the year when M23 staged an unprecedented offensive, seizing Goma and Bukavu, eastern Congo’s two largest cities and sparking fears of a wider regional war.
DR Congo accuses Rwanda of arming the M23 and sending troops to support the rebels in the conflict.
What is happening at the moment?
After a rapid advance in the east, fighters from the M23 rebel group have captured a number of key cities and towns.
Their first major coup was at the end of January with the taking of Goma, a city in the North Kivu province that is home to more than a million people.
Sitting on the border with Rwanda and the shores of Lake Kivu, Goma is a vital trading and transport hub that is within reach of mining towns supplying metals and minerals in high demand.
When the rebels took over Goma, UN aid agencies warned of a major humanitarian crisis with shortages of food and water, hospitals overwhelmed by casualties and bodies lying on the streets.
The M23 have also seized another key city in the region, South Kivu provincial capital Bukavu.
Who are the M23?
The M23 are led by ethnic Tutsis, who say they needed to take up arms to protect the rights of the minority group.
They say that several previous deals to end the fighting have not been respected, they take their name from a peace agreement that was signed on 23 March 2009.
Shortly after its creation in 2012, the M23 rapidly gained territory and seized Goma, acts that were met with international opprobrium and accusations of war crimes and human rights violations.
It was forced to withdraw from Goma, and then suffered a series of heavy defeats at the hands of the Congolese army along with a UN force that saw it expelled from the country. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
