Democratic Republic of the Congo

WFP says a ‘deepening hunger crisis’ is unfolding and that it may have to pause food aid due to record low funding.

The number of people facing emergency levels of hunger in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has nearly doubled since last year, the United Nations has warned.

The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday a “deepening hunger crisis” was unfolding in the region, but warned it was only able to reach a fraction of those in need due to acute funding shortages and access difficulties.

“We’re at historically low levels of funding. We’ve probably received about $150m this year,” said Cynthia Jones, country director of the WFP for the DRC, pointing to a need for $350m to help people in desperate need in the West African country.

“One in three people in DRC’s eastern provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu, Ituri, and Tanganyika are facing crisis levels of hunger or worse. That’s over 10 million people,” Jones said.

“Of that, an alarming three million people are in emergency levels of hunger,” she told a media briefing in Geneva.

She said this higher level meant people were facing extreme gaps in food consumption and very high levels of malnutrition, adding that the numbers of people that are facing emergency levels of hunger is surging.

“It has almost doubled since last year,” said Jones. “People are already dying of hunger.”

Years-long conflict

The area has been rocked by more than a year of fighting. The Rwanda-backed M23 armed group has seized swaths of the eastern DRC since taking up arms again in 2021, compounding a humanitarian crisis and the more than three-decade conflict in the region.

The armed group’s lightning offensive saw it capture the key eastern cities of Goma and Bukavu, near the border with Rwanda. It has set up an administration there parallel to the government in Kinshasa and taken control of nearby mines.

Rwanda has denied supporting the rebels. Both M23 and Congolese forces have been accused of carrying out atrocities.

Jones said the WFP was facing “a complete halt of all emergency food assistance in the eastern provinces” from February or March 2026.

She added that the two airports in the east, Goma and Bukavu, had been shut for months.

WFP wants an air bridge set up between neighbouring Rwanda and the eastern DRC, saying it would be a safer, faster and more effective route than from Kinshasa, on the other side of the vast nation.

In recent years, the WFP had received up to $600m in funding. In 2024, it received about $380m.

UN agencies, including the WFP, have been hit by major cuts in US foreign aid, as well as other major European donors reducing overseas aid budgets to increase defence spending.

Barring new cases, the patient’s recovery kicks off a 42-day countdown to declaring the country’s 16th outbreak over.

The last Ebola patient in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been released from a treatment centre in Kasai province, according to the United Nations health agency.

The patient is the 19th to recover out of 64 total cases recorded since the outbreak was declared in September, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement on Sunday.

If no new cases are discovered in the next 42 days, the outbreak will be declared over.

Mohamed Janabi, the WHO’s director for Africa, said the recovery was a “remarkable achievement”, given the outbreak began just six weeks ago.

“The country’s robust response, with support from WHO and partners, was pivotal to this achievement,” he added in a social media post.

In a video alongside the post on X, health workers were seen celebrating as the final patient exited the treatment centre in Bulape.

Today, the last #Ebola patient in Bulape, #DRC was discharged from the treatment centre.

The country’s robust response, with support from WHO and partners, was pivotal to this achievement. A 42-day countdown to declare the outbreak over has now begun.

Until then, @WHO and… pic.twitter.com/YTEpGzYwPW

— Prof. Mohamed Janabi (@ProfJanabi) October 19, 2025

The outbreak, which is the DRC’s 16th to date, was declared on September 4 as Ebola cases appeared in the Bulape and Mweka areas of the Kasai province in the country’s southwest.

Since then, the WHO has tallied 53 confirmed and 11 probable cases, with patients showing typical Ebola symptoms such as fever, vomiting, diarrhoea and haemorrhaging. Forty-five people have died.

The remote Kasai province has proven challenging to reach, even as it may have helped to prevent the spread of the virus, health officials have said.

Still, the WHO deployed response teams and set up a 32-bed treatment centre for the first time “outside a simulation exercise” in the region, the organisation said. More than 35,000 people have received vaccinations in the Bulape area.

No new cases have been identified since September 25.

Ebola was first identified in 1976 after an outbreak in what is now the DRC. Without treatment, up to 90 percent of cases are fatal, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The largest outbreak occurred from 2014 to 2016 in West Africa, ultimately infecting 28,600 and killing 11,325 people, with the disease also spreading to Europe and the United States.

The DRC’s most recent outbreak occurred in 2022 and involved just one recorded case of the virus.

UN agency confirms 48 cases since the outbreak was declared early this month, the first time in three years.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that 31 people have died from Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo this month.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters on Thursday in Geneva that there are 48 “confirmed and probable cases” in the DRC amid its first Ebola outbreak in three years.

The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week that the disease, previously confined to two districts, has now spread to four.

The outbreak was first announced two weeks ago near the town of Bulape.

Tedros said WHO and its partners were supporting the government’s response, delivering more than 14 tons of essential medical equipment and supplies and deploying 48 experts.

CORRECTION:

” Now to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

It’s been two weeks since the Government of the #DRC declared an #Ebola outbreak, near the central town of Bulape.

So far, 48 confirmed and probable cases have been reported, and 31 people have died.

I congratulate…

— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) September 18, 2025

“We’ve helped to set up an Ebola treatment centre with 18 beds, with 16 patients currently being treated,” he told reporters.

Tedros said that vaccination efforts are under way for contacts, possible contacts, and front-line workers.

“Courses of the monoclonal antibody therapy Mab114 have also been sent to treatment centres in Bulape, and so far, 14 patients have received the drug,” he added.

Moreover, Tedros added that more than 900 contacts have been identified and that health authorities are following up with them. On Tuesday, the first two patients to recover were discharged, the WHO chief revealed.

Ebola is a viral hemorrhagic fever that was first discovered in Africa in the 1970s. It is harboured mainly in wild animals, particularly fruit bats.

The dense tropical forests of the DRC serve as a natural reservoir for the Ebola virus, which can lead to body aches, diarrhoea, fever, and impaired kidney and liver function. It can persist in survivors’ bodies, sometimes re-emerging years later.

Between 2014 and 2016, three countries in West Africa – Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone – experienced the deadliest Ebola outbreak on record, with the disease killing more than 11,000.

For decades, men in many countries were expected to spend two or even three months’ salary on a diamond engagement ring. This notion – and the iconic status of this gem – did not come about by accident.

The story goes back to 1870, when an Oxford University dropout named Cecil Rhodes set off to try his luck in the Cape Colony – modern-day South Africa, then a key British domain.

Seeing the burgeoning diamond mining sector there, he began renting water pumps to diamond prospectors to prevent flooding of the mines. Then, over the next 20 years, Rhodes and his partner Charles Rudd proceeded to buy out hundreds, and then thousands, of small mines and “claims” – landholdings believed to contain diamonds – often for a pittance when their owners faced bankruptcy. Most miners were small operators, and Rhodes and Rudd had access to serious financial capital – notably the Rothschild banking empire – through their connections in London. As the two partners combined claims into larger mining units, overhead costs were reduced, and operations became more profitable.

The partners incorporated as De Beers Consolidated Mines, De Beers being the name of one of the mines they took over. By 1888, the company had a near-monopoly of South African claims and active diamond mines. With diamonds making up more than 25 percent of South African exports in 1900, De Beers became a powerhouse of the country’s economy, controlling some 90 percent of the world’s total diamond supply. Rhodes himself became a leading imperial figure, serving as prime minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896.

De Beers was founded upon the racist policies of South Africa, which at the time was ruled by a white minority. The diamonds were extracted by Black miners earning subsistence wages, while De Beers’s white, European-origin shareholders enjoyed the profits.

Following Rhodes’s death in 1902, control of De Beers ultimately passed to German-born entrepreneur Ernest Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer used a combination of financial incentives, strategic pressure, and diplomacy to persuade diamond suppliers in other countries to sell exclusively through the London-based and De Beers-owned “Central Selling Organization” (CSO), which in the 1930s became the unified sales channel for virtually all the world’s pre-cut diamonds. This enabled De Beers to stockpile diamonds, strictly control the release of stones to the global market, and effectively control prices – thereby creating an illusion of diamond scarcity worldwide.

Meanwhile, De Beers sought to enhance global demand for diamonds. In 1946, the company hired NW Ayer, a Philadelphia-based advertising agency, which one year later came up with the legendary slogan, “A diamond is forever”. This reframed the diamond and, specifically, the diamond engagement ring, as a symbol of “eternal love”. Through mass advertising, product placements in films, and celebrity PR – for example, lending jewellery to actors for major events – the campaign transformed the diamond market in the US, Europe and Japan.

Lasting 64 years, until 2011, this campaign was an astounding global success, with Ad Age magazine naming “A diamond is forever” as the top advertisement slogan of the 20th century. De Beers had manufactured a social norm, with the diamond engagement ring becoming almost mandatory in every developed market. While previously, a fiance might give a locket, a string of pearls, or a family heirloom to his intended, the number of American brides with a diamond ring climbed from 10 percent in 1940 to some 80 percent in 1980. In Japan, this figure rose from less than 5 percent in 1960 to 60 percent by 1981.

By the early 1950s, a diamond ring typically cost about $170 – about $2,300 in today’s money. De Beers advertisements initially suggested spending one month’s salary on an engagement ring, but by the 1980s, they were posing the question: “How can you make two months’ salary last forever?” Consumers appeared undeterred by the fact that a diamond’s resale value was typically just 50 percent of its original retail price (in contrast to gold, which has an “official” benchmark price set twice-daily).

By the time Marilyn Monroe sang “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend” in 1953 and the James Bond film “Diamonds Are Forever” was released in 1971, the diamond had become an icon.

‘Cartel behaviour’

By the late 1970s, De Beers was annually distributing some 50 million diamond carats, with sales of more than $2bn in the US alone.

But as the 1980s rolled around, problems started to emerge for the company.

De Beers came under increasing scrutiny as the anti-apartheid movement gained momentum in Europe and the United States. Reports of its working conditions were shocking: low pay for mineworkers, minimum safety training and crowded dormitory housing surrounded by barbed wire and security checkpoints. This negative publicity put De Beers firmly in the spotlight as one of the prime beneficiaries of apartheid.

De Beers had already fought off allegations of “cartel behaviour” from the US Department of Justice. But in 1994, the company was indicted by a US grand jury on price-fixing charges. The company was barred from doing business in the US, where its executives could no longer set foot for fear of arrest.

In the late 1990s, reports that the diamond trade was financing brutal civil wars in Angola, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo further soured consumer sentiment.

Rebel groups targeted “alluvial” diamond mines – relatively easy-to-extract surface deposits, often in riverbeds – selling stones into the informal “grey” market and using the profits to buy weapons. The phrase “blood diamonds” entered the lexicon as investigative articles depicted enslaved children with pickaxes and shovels. De Beers was accused of turning a blind eye, if not outright complicity. The company’s sales declined more than 20 percent in two years, from about $5.7bn in 1999 to $4.45bn in 2001, with other diamond suppliers such as Angola’s Endiama and Russia’s Alrosa equally affected.

But since the early 1990s, changes had been afoot at De Beers. Facing pressure from South Africa’s newly elected African National Congress (ANC), it had introduced better conditions and wages for its mainly Black mineworkers. At the same time, Black South Africans also began to occupy some management roles.

Meanwhile, the US indictment meant the company had no choice but to terminate its CSO in 2000, ushering in competition from other producers. Diamond prices, no longer set and dictated by the CSO, became more volatile, subject to fluctuating demand, economic cycles, and geopolitical conditions.

To counter the blood diamond backlash, De Beers helped implement the “Kimberley Process” in 2003, through which diamond dealers can trace the origin of diamonds and authenticate “clean’’ diamonds with a microscopic stamp.

Not forever?

Today, natural diamonds may have lost some of their allure with the rise of “lab-grown” stones and “diamond simulants” such as cubic zirconia, which are up to 90 percent cheaper than the mined variety and often distinguishable from the real thing only by experts using specialised equipment.

Over the past two years, the diamond industry has been hit by a “perfect storm” of cheaper synthetic stones, weak consumer demand in the US and China, sanctions against Russia and, more recently, high US tariffs. This has had a widespread adverse impact: the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) reported that rough diamond imports dropped 35 percent in 2024, with overall trade declining by 25 percent year-on-year (from $32.5bn to $24.4bn) – and in the Indian gem processing hub of Surat, at least 50,000 diamond workers were rendered jobless in 2024. At least 80 diamond workers in India have died by suicide in the past two years.

In 2011, the Oppenheimer family sold its interest in De Beers to the London-based mining corporation Anglo American, another major shareholder, for just over $5bn. De Beers is now once more up for sale, again with a $5bn price tag, as Anglo American seeks to exit the declining diamond market in favour of copper, iron ore and rare earth minerals.

Despite the volatile market conditions, total global consumer diamond sales were valued at approximately $100bn in 2024, with the average price of $6,750 for a diamond ring in the US, according to the Natural Diamond Council – about 1.3 months’ standard wage in the United States, but about eight months’ worth of the global median income. For those of greater means, London’s Harrods reportedly has a 228.31 carat, pear-shaped diamond available to view by private appointment – with a price estimated to be in excess of $30m.

This article is part of “Ordinary items, extraordinary stories”, a series about the surprising stories behind well-known items. 

Read more from the series:

How the inventor of the bouncy castle saved lives

How a popular Peruvian soft drink went ‘toe-to-toe’ with Coca-Cola

How a drowning victim became a lifesaving icon

How a father’s love and a pandemic created a household name

How Nigerians reinvented an Italian tinned tomato brand

How a children’s chocolate drink became a symbol of French colonialism

Rescue teams searched for the missing after deadly incidents in Equateur province this week.

Two separate boat accidents this week in northwestern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have killed at least 193 people and left dozens missing, authorities and state media said.

The accidents happened on Wednesday and Thursday, about 150km (93 miles) apart in the Equateur province.

One boat with nearly 500 passengers caught fire and capsized on Thursday evening along the Congo River in the province’s Lukolela territory, killing 107 people, DRC’s Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs said in a report.

The report said 209 survivors were rescued following the accident, involving a whaleboat near the village of Malange in Lukolela territory.

A memo from the Ministry of Social Affairs, seen by the Reuters news agency, said 146 people were missing.

A day earlier, in a separate accident, a motorised boat capsized in the Basankusu territory of the province, killing at least 86 people, most of them students, state media reported.

Several people were missing, but the reports did not give a figure for how many.

It was not immediately clear what caused either accident or whether rescue operations were continuing on Friday evening.

State media attributed Wednesday’s accident to “improper loading and night navigation”, citing reports from the scene. Images that appeared to be from the scene showed villagers gathered around bodies as they mourned.

A local civil society group blamed Wednesday’s accident on the government and claimed the toll was higher.

Search operations took place after the accidents, with naval personnel and community volunteers combing the banks while authorities pledged medical care for the injured, assistance to bereaved families and the repatriation of survivors to their places of origin and destination.

River transport is a lifeline in DRC’s vast rainforest regions, where old, wooden vessels are the main form of transport between villages. It is also often cheaper than travelling on the few available roads.

However, the vessels are poorly maintained and crumbling under the weight of passengers and their goods, and accidents are frequent.

On such trips, life jackets are rare, and the vessels are usually overloaded.

Many of the boats also travel at night, complicating rescue efforts during accidents and leaving many bodies often unaccounted for.

Rescue operations are also often hampered by limited resources and the remote locations of accidents.

Qatar’s foreign ministry said delegations were meeting in Doha to review the implementation of a truce signed in July.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the M23 armed group have resumed negotiations in Qatar as violence deepens in the country’s mineral-rich eastern provinces in spite of a recently signed an agreement to reach a full peace deal.

Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Majed al-Ansari said delegations from Kinshasa and the M23 were meeting in Doha to review the implementation of a truce signed in July. “We’ve received the two parties here in Doha to discuss the earlier agreement,” Ansari said at a news briefing on Tuesday.

The deal, brokered by Qatar, committed both sides to a ceasefire and a path to a final settlement. Under its terms, talks were supposed to begin on 8 August and conclude by 18 August. Both deadlines passed without progress, and the agreement has faltered amid accusations of violations from both sides.

Ansari said the current discussions include plans to create a mechanism for monitoring the truce, as well as an exchange of prisoners and detainees. He added that the United States and the International Committee of the Red Cross were closely involved in supporting the talks.

The Qatar-led initiative followed a separate ceasefire agreement signed in Washington between Rwanda, who back M23, and DRC in June. But the M23 rejected that deal, demanding direct negotiations with Kinshasa to address what it called unresolved political grievances.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that he ended the conflict, and several others, describing DRC as the “darkest, deepest” part of Africa and asserting that he “saved lots of lives.” On Monday, Trump claimed that nine million people were “killed with machetes” during the decades-long war, insisting, “I stopped it.”

Rights groups have dismissed Trump’s claims as misleading. “It is far from the reality to say that he has ended the war,” said Christian Rumu of Amnesty International. “People on the ground continue to experience grave human rights violations, and some of these amount to crimes against humanity,” he added, calling on Washington to accelerate efforts to secure peace.

Despite multiple ceasefire attempts, fighting has intensified in North and South Kivu provinces, forcing more than two million people from their homes this year. Human Rights Watch last week accused the M23 of carrying out ethnically targeted “mass killings,” while United Nations experts have said Rwandan forces played a “critical” role in supporting the group’s offensive.

Rwanda denies involvement, but the M23’s capture of vast areas, including the regional capital Goma earlier this year, has fuelled fears of a wider regional conflict.

The DRC’s eastern region, home to some of the world’s richest deposits of gold, cobalt, and coltan, has been devastated by years of armed conflict, with civilians bearing the brunt of atrocities despite repeated international mediation efforts.

MONUSCO condemns the attacks by the ADF ‘in the strongest possible terms’, the mission’s spokesperson says.

Rebels backed by ISIL (ISIS) have killed at least 52 civilians in the Democratic Republic of the Congo this month, according to the United Nations peacekeeping mission (MONUSCO) in the country, as both the DRC army and Rwandan-backed M23 rebel group accuse each other of violating a recently reached US-mediated ceasefire deal.

Attacks by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) targeted the Beni and Lubero territories of the eastern North Kivu province between August 9 and 16, MONUSCO said on Monday, warning that the death toll could rise further.

The renewed violence comes as a separate conflict between the DRC army and the M23 group continues to simmer in the east of the country, despite a series of peace treaties signed in recent months. The government and M23 had agreed to sign a permanent peace deal by August 18, but no agreement was announced on Monday.

The latest ADF “violence was accompanied by kidnappings, looting, the burning of houses, vehicles, and motorcycles, as well as the destruction of property belonging to populations already facing a precarious humanitarian situation,” MONUSCO said. It condemned the attacks “in the strongest possible terms”, the mission’s spokesperson said.

The ADF is among several militias wrangling over land and resources in the DRC’s mineral-rich east.

Lieutenant Elongo Kyondwa Marc, a regional Congolese army spokesperson, said the ADF was taking revenge on civilians after suffering defeats by Congolese forces.

“When they arrived, they first woke the residents, gathered them in one place, tied them up with ropes, and then began to massacre them with machetes and hoes,” Macaire Sivikunula, chief of Lubero’s Bapere sector, told the Reuters news agency over the weekend.

After a relative lull in recent months, authorities said the group killed nearly 40 people in Komanda city, Ituri province, last month, when it stormed a Catholic church during a vigil and fired on worshippers, including many women and children.

The ADF, an armed group formed by former Ugandan rebels in the 1990s after discontent with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, has killed thousands of civilians and increased looting and killings in the northeastern DRC.

In 2002, following military assaults by Ugandan forces, the group moved its activities to neighbouring DRC. In 2019, it pledged allegiance to ISIL.

Among the 52 victims so far this month, at least nine were killed overnight from Saturday to Sunday in an attack on the town of Oicha, in North Kivu, the AFP news agency learned from security and local sources.

A few days earlier, the ADF had already killed at least 40 people in several towns in the Bapere sector, also in North Kivu province, according to local and security sources.

In response to the renewed attacks, MONUSCO said it had strengthened its military presence in several sectors and allowed several hundred civilians to take refuge in its base.

At the end of 2021, Kampala and Kinshasa launched a joint military operation against the ADF, dubbed “Shujaa”, so far without succeeding in putting an end to their attacks.

A total of 22,000 cases registered in province in 2023; in first five months of 2024, figure had already reached 17,000.

Healthcare providers in the war-torn eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) treated more than 17,000 victims of sexual violence over just five months last year, according to a United Nations report.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s annual report on conflict-related sexual violence, released on Thursday, said the cases were registered in the province of North Kivu between January and May last year, as fighting between Congolese forces and Rwanda-backed M23 rebels intensified.

“Many survivors sought care after violent sexual attacks, including penetration with objects, perpetrated by multiple perpetrators,” said the report, which charted crimes like rape, gang rape and sexual slavery.

The conflict, which has killed thousands this year alone and displaced millions, is still ongoing despite a Qatar-mediated agreement between DRC and M23 last month that was supposed to pave the way to a ceasefire, running parallel to United States efforts to broker peace between Kinshasa and Kigali.

Last year’s figure marked a continued surge in sexual violence as the Rwanda-backed M23 rampaged through the east, with a total of 22,000 cases registered throughout 2023. That figure was more than double the previous year’s tally.

In 2023, the spike in violence occurred as the conflict spilled over from North Kivu into South Kivu, forcing UN peacekeeping mission MONUSCO to withdraw from the latter.

The report said that MONUSCO’s operations narrowed, “owing to military operations and widespread insecurity”. The mission had documented 823 cases of sexual violence in 2024, affecting 416 women, 391 girls, seven boys and nine men.

The UN said that 198 of last year’s cases were perpetrated by DRC “state actors”, including the army. It found that “M23 elements”, which “continued to receive instructions and support from the Rwanda Defence Force”, were implicated in 152 cases.

According to the report, survivors reported that they were exposed to the threat of sexual violence while searching for food in the fields and areas around displacement sites.

Many displaced women had resorted to prostitution to survive, “highlighting the nexus between food insecurity and sexual violence”.

Denis Mukwege, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 for his work combating sexual violence in DRC, told The Times newspaper this year: “When you have people raping with complete immunity – and think they can go on and on without any consequence, nothing will change.”

Guterres’s report charted violations in 21 countries, with the highest numbers recorded in DRC, the Central African Republic, Haiti, Somalia and South Sudan.

While women and girls made up 92 percent of victims, men and boys were also targeted.

The US is sanctioning the Pareco-FF armed group, as well as the Congolese mining company CDMC.

The United States has sanctioned an armed group accused of illicit mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), as both the army and the Rwandan-backed M23 rebel group traded accusations of violating a recently reached US-mediated ceasefire deal by attacking each other’s positions.

The US Department of the Treasury said on Tuesday that it was blocking all interests and restricting transactions with Pareco-FF, an armed group that it said controlled the key coltan mining site of Rubaya from 2022 to 2024, and which has opposed the M23 group.

The administration of President Donald Trump has been pushing for US access to the region’s minerals, as it has done in other parts of the world, including Ukraine.

It also slapped sanctions on the Congolese mining company CDMC, saying it sold minerals that were sourced and smuggled from mines near Rubaya and two Hong Kong-based export companies, East Rise and Star Dragon, which have been accused of buying minerals from the armed group.

“The United States is sending a clear message that no armed group or commercial entity is immune from sanctions if they undermine peace, stability or security in the DRC,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement.

Rubaya is currently under the control of the M23 group, which is already targeted by US sanctions. The mine there produces 15 to 30 percent of the world’s supply of coltan, a mineral used in electronics such as laptops and mobile telephones.

Many Pareco rebels integrated into the DRC military in 2009, but Pareco-FF emerged in 2022 in response to the M23 gains.

The sanctions come as Congolese army spokesman Sylvain Ekenge said in a statement that the M23 group’s “almost daily” attacks constitute an “intentional and manifest violation” of the declaration of principles, which the two parties signed in mid-July in Doha, whose terms include a “permanent ceasefire”.

It followed a separate peace deal between the Congolese and Rwandan governments, signed in Washington, DC, the previous month, which also helped the US government and US companies gain control of critical minerals in the region.

The Congolese army said it was ready to respond “to all provocations from this [M23 group] coalition, accustomed to violating agreements”, the statement said.

M23 spokesman Lawrence Kanyuka said in a post on X on Monday that DRC’s government was continuing “its offensive military manoeuvres aimed at full-scale war”.

The eastern DRC, a region bordering Rwanda with abundant natural resources but plagued by non-state armed groups, has suffered extreme violence for more than three decades.

A new surge of unrest broke out early this year when the M23 group captured the key cities of Goma and Bukavu, setting up their own administrations, with thousands killed in the conflict.

Violence has continued on the ground despite the US and Qatar-brokered peace deal, with fighting becoming more intense since Friday around the town of Mulamba in South Kivu province, where the front line had been relatively stable since March.

The M23 attacked positions between Friday and Monday held by pro-Kinshasa militia and army forces, and pushed them back several kilometres, after clashes using light and heavy weapons, local and security sources said.

The DRC government and the M23 rebels have agreed to sign a permanent peace deal by August 18, but the renewed fighting has threatened this effort.

UN rights chief Volker Turk says the violence resulted in ‘one of the largest documented death tolls’ despite a truce.

Rwanda-backed M23 rebels killed at least 319 civilians, including 48 women and 19 children, last month in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Volker Turk, UN high commissioner for human rights, said, citing “first-hand accounts”.

The violence in the Rutshuru territory of North Kivu Province produced “one of the largest documented death tolls in such attacks since the M23’s resurgence in 2022,” Turk said in a statement on Wednesday.

With Rwanda’s support, the M23 has seized swaths of the mineral-rich Congolese east from the DRC’s army since its resurgence in 2021, triggering a spiralling humanitarian crisis in a region already riven by three decades of conflict.

July’s violence came only weeks after the Congolese government and the M23 signed a declaration of principle on June 19 reaffirming their commitment to a permanent ceasefire, following months of broken truces.

“I am appalled by the attacks on civilians by the M23 and other armed groups in eastern DRC amid continued fighting, despite the ceasefire that was recently signed in Doha,” Turk said in a statement.

“All attacks against civilians must stop immediately, and all those responsible must be held to account,” he added.

Turk’s UN Human Rights Office said it had documented multiple attacks in North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri provinces, in the conflict-ridden east of the country bordering Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.

In the agreement signed in Doha, the warring parties agreed to “uphold their commitment to a permanent ceasefire”, refraining from “hate propaganda” and “any attempt to seize by force new positions”.

The deal includes a roadmap for restoring state authority in eastern DRC, and an agreement for the two sides to open direct talks towards a comprehensive peace agreement.

It followed a separate agreement signed in Washington by the Congolese government and Rwanda, which has a history of intervention in the eastern DRC stretching back to the 1990s.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi are due to meet in the coming months to firm up the Washington agreement, whose terms have not yet been implemented.

Last week, the two countries agreed to a US State Department-brokered economic framework outline as part of the peace deal.

“I urge the signatories and facilitators of both the Doha and Washington agreements to ensure that they rapidly translate into safety, security and real progress for civilians in the DRC, who continue to endure the devastating consequences of these conflicts,” said Turk.

Rich in key minerals such as gold and coltan, the Congolese east has been riven by fighting between rival armed groups and interference by foreign powers for more than 30 years.

Dozens of ceasefires and truces have been brokered and broken in recent years without providing a lasting end to the conflict.

Neighbouring countries agree on terms of economic cooperation in several areas, including energy and supply chains for minerals.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda have agreed on terms of economic cooperation in several sectors, as the two countries move towards delivering on a peace deal signed in June.

The tenets agreed on Friday summarise a regional economic integration framework, which includes elements of cooperation on energy, infrastructure, mineral supply chains, national parks and public health, according to the State Department of the United States, which brokered the deal.

A source familiar with the matter said a preliminary draft of the framework has been agreed to and there would now be an input period to get reaction from the private sector and civil society before it is finalised, the Reuters news agency reported.

In the statement, Rwanda and the DRC affirmed that each country has “full, sovereign control” over the exploitation, processing and export of its natural resources, and recognised the importance of developing mineral processing and transformation capacity within each country, according to Reuters.

The DRC views the plundering of its mineral wealth as a key driver of the conflict between its forces and Rwanda-backed M23 rebels in the country’s east that has killed thousands of people.

‘Mineral deal first’

The deal signed in Washington, DC, on June 27 aims to attract Western investment to a region rich in tantalum, gold, cobalt, copper, lithium and other minerals. According to Human Rights Watch, it is “a mineral deal first, an opportunity for peace second”, linking economic integration and respect for territorial integrity with the promise of billions of dollars of investments.

The two countries are also committed to ensuring that the minerals trade no longer provides funding to armed groups and to creating a world-class industrial mining sector in the region. The deal would also ensure better cross-border interoperability on mineral supply chains, according to the statement.

They also agreed to connect new infrastructure to the US-backed Lobito Corridor, underscoring Washington’s aim of greater access to resources in the region and efforts to counter China.

The Ruzizi III hydropower project and Lake Kivu methane exploitation were the only specific projects mentioned in the statement, despite US emphasis on critical minerals. The countries said they intended to prioritise financing for Ruzizi and work together to exploit methane gas sustainably.

Friday’s announcement comes after the two countries held the first meeting of a joint oversight committee on Thursday in a step towards implementing the deal, even as other commitments are yet to be fulfilled.

In the Washington agreement, the two countries pledged to implement a 2024 agreement that would see Rwandan troops withdraw from eastern DRC within 90 days.

The Congolese military’s operations targeting the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Congo-based armed group that includes remnants of Rwanda’s former army and militias that carried out a 1994 genocide, are meant to conclude over the same timeframe.

The deal also said the DRC and Rwanda would form a joint security coordination mechanism within 30 days and implement a plan agreed upon last year to monitor and verify the withdrawal of Rwandan soldiers within three months.

But 30 days from the signing have passed without a meeting of the joint security coordination mechanism.

The source familiar with the matter said the joint security coordination mechanism meeting would be held on August 7 in Addis Ababa.

The DRC is also involved in direct talks with M23 hosted by Qatar, and last month the two sides pledged to sign a separate peace agreement by August 18, though many outstanding details need to be negotiated.

A UN mission says 43 worshippers were killed in the attack at a night mass in a church.

The armed group ISIL (ISIS) has claimed responsibility for a deadly attack that a United Nations mission says killed at least 43 worshippers during a night mass at a church in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The attack, which took place at the church in Ituri province’s Komanda city, saw members of the ISIL-affiliated Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) killing people with guns and machetes, and taking captives.

ISIL said on its Telegram channel that rebels had killed some 45 churchgoers and burned dozens of homes and shops.

The UN mission known as MONUSCO said at least 43 people had been killed, including 19 women and nine children, and condemned the attack.

Pope Leo sent a message of condolences to the bereaved families and the Christian community who lost their relatives and friends in the assault, saying he would pray for them.

The Congolese government condemned the church attack as “horrific”, while the military described it as a “large-scale massacre” carried out in revenge for recent security operations targeting the ADF.

However, M23, another Congolese rebel group, backed by Rwanda, used the attack to accuse the government of “blatant incompetence” in attempts to protect citizens.

MONUSCO said the church killings will “exacerbate an already extremely worrying humanitarian situation in the province”.

The church attack on Sunday was the latest in a series of deadly ADF assaults on civilians, including an attack earlier this month when the group killed 66 people in Ituri province.

The attack happened on July 11, at about 1am (00:00 GMT) in the Irumu area, near the border with Uganda.

The ADF originates in neighbouring Uganda, but is now based in the mineral-rich eastern DRC. It mounts frequent attacks, further destabilising a region where many armed groups compete for influence and resources.

The ADF was formed by disparate small groups in Uganda in the late 1990s following alleged discontent with President Yoweri Museveni.

In 2002, following military assaults by Ugandan forces, the group moved its activities to the neighbouring DRC and has since been responsible for the killings of thousands of civilians. In 2019, it pledged allegiance to ISIL.

The ADF’s leadership says it is fighting to form a government in the East African country.

The DRC army has long struggled against the rebel group, and it is now also grappling with a complex web of attacks since renewed hostilities with the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels.

Representatives of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have signed a deal in Qatar to end fighting in the eastern DRC. The declaration commits parties to an eventual peace agreement that includes the restoration of state authority in the country’s east.

Kampala, Uganda – Rwanda is in “command and control” of M23 rebels in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda has “unilaterally doubled its military presence” in the DRC, and armed groups – including those aligned to the Congolese government – are committing rights violations against civilians, according to a group of United Nations experts.

An as-yet unpublished report from UN experts on DRC that was leaked to the media and seen by Al Jazeera describes violations by all parties to the conflict and blames neighbouring governments for allegedly exploiting and escalating the current crisis.

The report was submitted to the UN Security Council in May, the Reuters news agency reported. It is expected to be released soon, a UN expert who contributed to the report told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity, without specifying a date.

While analysts see these reports as an essential tool of accountability, Kigali and Kampala have called the experts biased.

Neither government replied to Al Jazeera’s request for comment about the contents of the report, but both have repeatedly denied the accusations levelled against them.

Meanwhile, the new findings risk putting a damper on the cautious optimism garnered by the signing of a peace deal between Rwanda and the DRC in the US last month, and ongoing Qatar-mediated peace talks between Kinshasa and M23.

Rwanda’s ‘instruction’, control of resources

For years, M23, which the UN says is backed by Rwanda – a charge Kigali denies – has been embroiled in conflict with the Congolese army and its allied militias known as Wazalendo. Early this year, M23 made rapid advances, seizing control of Goma and Bukavu, the capitals of North Kivu and South Kivu, respectively, which it still holds today.

The latest UN experts report – the first since M23’s advance – offers a stark assessment of the conflict, placing blame on Rwanda for facilitating the rapid expansion of the rebel forces.

Rwanda is providing “critical support” to M23, which takes “instructions” from Rwanda’s government and intelligence services, said the report.

In previous reports, the UN experts found there were some 3,000-4,000 Rwandan troops fighting alongside M23 in the DRC.

“One week prior to the [M23] Goma attack, Rwandan officials confidentially informed the Group [of experts] that President Paul Kagame had decided to imminently take control of Goma and Bukavu,” the new report alleged.

Rwanda has repeatedly denied backing M23, while Kigali has sharply criticised the UN experts.

“These reports were written long ago,” President Paul Kagame said at a news conference in Kigali on July 4, after the contents of the report started circulating in international media.

“They come here just to confirm a narrative they already had,” the Rwandan leader said about the UN panel of experts.

Kagame likened the experts to an arsonist who torches a house but also acts as both judge and prosecutor. “The very ones who burned the [house] are the ones in the seat to judge and prosecute.”

The report by UN experts, however, only reasserted its criticism of Kigali.

The Rwandan army’s “de facto direction and effective control” over M23’s operations “render Rwanda liable for the actions” of the group, the report said, arguing that Rwanda’s conduct meets the threshold for international sanctions.

Last month’s US-brokered deal between the DRC and Rwanda does not include M23, but it stipulates that all parties should comply with the Qatar peace process. It also highlights that the Congolese government should facilitate the disengagement of the armed group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), which was established by Hutus linked to the killings of Tutsis in the 1994 Rwanda genocide. Rwanda should then lift its “defensive measures” inside the DRC, the agreement said.

While Kigali has often argued that its actions in the DRC are aimed at addressing longstanding security threats posed by the FDLR, the UN experts assert that its actions went far beyond legitimate security concerns.

The experts noted that “the final objective of Kigali was to control the territory of the DRC and its natural resources.”

Their report details how minerals, including coltan, were looted from mines in towns seized by M23, then smuggled into Rwanda. “Once in Rwanda, the looted minerals were mixed with local production, effectively laundering them into the downstream supply chain under the guise of Rwandan origin,” the report said.

Part of the minerals smuggled to Rwanda were purchased by Boss Mining Solutions Inc, represented by Eddy Habimana, who has previously been implicated in the illegal trafficking of minerals from the DRC, the report added.

Beyond Rwanda, the report also outlines violations of international law by another neighbour, Uganda.

Amid the Rwanda/M23–DRC fighting, there was a “rapid military build-up” by the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) in North Kivu and Ituri provinces, the report said.

Troops significantly increased this year “effectively doubling Uganda’s footprint in the country”, it added.

The Ugandan army, which has conducted joint operations with the Congolese military against the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a rebel movement with origins in Uganda, since 2023, “unilaterally” increased its troop presence in eastern DRC, the report added.

“The DRC government confirmed that the new UPDF deployment was executed without its prior approval, and that UPDF was undertaking unilateral initiatives outside the framework of joint operations with the [Congolese army],” the report read.

The deployment, according to the panel of experts, raised questions about Kampala’s motives, particularly given past allegations of UPDF support to M23. While Uganda claimed the troop movements were defensive and aimed at securing its economic interests, the report says their positioning created a de facto buffer zone that shielded M23 from northern counterattacks.

In response, Uganda’s ambassador to the UN, Adonia Ayebare, wrote on X that the report “contains falsehoods” and attempts to undermine the joint military operation with the DRC. He said Uganda will make an official statement after publication of the report.

​​General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Uganda’s army commander also posted on X, saying: “While the UN so called ‘Group of Experts’ writes biased reports against us, we (UPDF) continue to save the lives of human beings in our region.”

The report by the UN experts had called out “repeated incendiary public statements” by Kainerugaba in which they said he emphasised close cooperation between the UPDF and the Rwandan army.

The report also accused Thomas Lubanga, a former ICC convict living in Kampala, of forming a politico-military movement to oppose the Congolese government, “with at least moral and passive endorsement from the Ugandan authorities”.

However, addressing journalists in Kampala on July 16, Lubanga said he is in forced exile because of persecution by Kinshasa, and if his movement had been receiving support from Uganda, it “would find itself on Kinshasa’s doorstep today”.

Ugandan, Rwandan interests in DRC

Kristof Titeca, a professor at the University of Antwerp who recently published a report on Uganda’s operations in DRC, urges readers to view the UN report and the backlash it has provoked in the context of regional dynamics.

Kigali and Kampala share overlapping interests in the DRC – chiefly concerning security, political influence, and economic access – but these interests also place them in a complex relationship of both cooperation and competition, he said.

Titeca argues that the resurgence and rapid expansion of M23 was, in part, triggered by Kigali’s fear that Kampala might encroach on its influence in eastern DRC after Uganda allowed its soldiers to enter DRC in pursuit of the ADF.

As M23 gained ground towards the end of 2024, Uganda reacted with troop deployments, particularly aimed at preventing the rebels – and by extension, Rwanda – from entering areas it sees as its sphere of interest.

Titeca says the military manoeuvres were as much a strategic message to Rwanda as they were about protecting Ugandan interests.

Drawing from movements and postures observed since late 2024, Titeca suggests that Kigali and Kampala may have an implicit understanding of their respective zones of influence.

“Some people think there might be some agreement between Kampala and Kigali on their area of interest,” he said.

In eastern DRC, “they are friends and also enemies at the same time,” he added, referring to Uganda and Rwanda.

Kinshasa’s violations

For the UN experts, Kinshasa bears some responsibility, too. On the Congolese side, the report paints a picture of a state under siege, struggling to maintain sovereignty over its eastern territories.

The government continued to rely heavily on irregular Wazalendo groups, and on the FDLR, despite the latter being under UN sanctions, as proxies in its fight against M23 and the Rwandan army.

While strategic, the report says, this alliance has worsened the security and human rights situation, contributing to reprisal attacks, child recruitment and sexual violence.

As it called out M23’s actions during the taking of Goma and Bukavu, the report also documented a pattern of grave international humanitarian law and rights violations – including looting, sexual violence, and killings – by retreating Congolese soldiers and Wazalendo fighters at the same time.

“These abuses occurred in a climate of impunity, in the general context of a weakening chain of command,” it said.

Al Jazeera sought a response to these claims from the Congolese government, but received no reply.

In dismissing the report, the Rwandan president accused the panel of perpetuating a biased narrative against Kigali and of ignoring Congolese government complicity with the FDLR, which he says continues to spread anti-Tutsi views that led to the 1994 genocide.

“All the reports, 75 percent of them, blame AFC/M23 and Rwanda,” Kagame said at the July 4 news conference. “You will find they never write anything comprehensive about FDLR or how Congolese institutions spread hate and genocide ideology. How can experts not see that?”

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Rwandan analyst Thierry Gatete echoed Kagame’s criticisms, questioning the credibility of the UN panel and alleging that they rarely conduct field research.

“They sit in New York or Paris and rely on testimonies from Congolese officials or FDLR sympathisers,” he said.

The report notes that Rwanda denied the group of experts access to Kigali. However, Gatete says Rwanda initially cooperated with the panel but later gave up because the reports were consistently biased and, in his view, inconsequential. “Nobody takes what they write seriously,” he said.

While Rwanda and Uganda view the UN reports as biased, others see them as essential tools for accountability.

Stewart Muhindo, a researcher with Congolese civil society group LUCHA, said the panel provides critical evidence that challenges both state and non-state actors.

“The panel tells hard truths,” he noted, pointing out that the report also criticises the DRC government for its continued collaboration with the FDLR, despite promises to end the alliance. “It’s not just about blaming Rwanda.”

Muhindo also agrees with UN experts that the DRC’s reliance on Wazalendo fighters has exacerbated the humanitarian crisis. These irregular forces, though not sanctioned like the FDLR, have been implicated in atrocities, including attacks on civilians and the recruitment of child soldiers, he said.

“Despite ongoing peacemaking initiatives, efforts to stabilise the region continue to face significant challenges,” the UN experts said in the report. “Civilians bore the brunt of the conflict, enduring widespread displacement, insecurity, and grave violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.”

Paul Kagame gives cautious welcome to US-brokered agreement, but says success depends on goodwill from warring parties.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame has cautiously welcomed a United States-brokered peace deal with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), while suggesting Kigali will retaliate if provoked.

Speaking at a news conference in Kigali on Friday, Kagame said Rwanda remained committed to the agreement but questioned whether Kinshasa would uphold its part of the deal.

“If the side that we are working with plays tricks and takes us back to the problem, then we deal with the problem like we have been dealing with it,” Kagame said.

The agreement, backed by the administration of US President Donald Trump, was signed last week and calls for Rwandan troops to withdraw from eastern DRC within 90 days.

The region has seen intense fighting this year, with M23 rebels seizing major towns. The United Nations has accused Rwanda of backing the group with thousands of troops – an allegation Kigali denies.

While the peace deal is seen as a turning point, analysts do not believe it will quickly end the fighting because M23 – a major belligerent in the conflict – says the agreement does not apply to it.

US ‘not to blame’ if deal fails

Rwanda insists its military presence in eastern DRC is a response to threats from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), an armed group made up of ethnic Hutu fighters linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Kagame said Kinshasa must act to dismantle the FDLR if the deal is to succeed.

“We are grateful to the Trump administration for its efforts,” he said. “If it doesn’t work, they aren’t the ones to blame.”

There has been no official response from Kinshasa, which has consistently accused Rwanda of fuelling the conflict.

Rwanda-backed M23 is the most prominent armed group in the conflict in eastern DRC, and its major advance early this year left bodies on the streets. With 7 million people displaced in DRC, the UN has called it “one of the most protracted, complex, serious humanitarian crises on Earth”.

M23 has not been involved in the US-mediated efforts, although it has been part of other peace talks. On Thursday, both the Congolese government and M23 representatives agreed that they would return to Qatar for further discussions aimed at ending the conflict.

Meanwhile, Washington has proposed a separate investment plan that could allow Western companies to tap into the region’s rich deposits of tantalum, copper, and gold – resources that have long fuelled violence in eastern DRC.

Kagame’s appearance on Friday marked his first public remarks since June 6, prompting speculation during his absence about his health. Dissidents abroad, including former adviser David Himbara, claimed the president was seriously unwell.

Kagame dismissed the rumours with a joke. “Some of my personal health problems might originate from managing you people,” he said, sparking laughter.

“What is the problem? What would people want me to account for? That I am not human?” he added. The president appeared in good health throughout the briefing.

Cape Town, South Africa – Five months ago, with a single social media post, United States President Donald Trump put half a million people in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) at risk when he announced the closure of USAID – the single biggest aid donor in the country.

A few days ago in Washington, DC, the same administration claimed credit for extricating the Congolese people from a decades-long conflict often described as the deadliest since World War II. This year alone, thousands of people have died and hundreds of thousands have been displaced.

While the White House may be celebrating its diplomatic triumph in brokering a peace deal between tense neighbours DRC and Rwanda, for sceptical observers and people caught up in conflict and deprivation in eastern DRC, the mood is bound to be far more muted, experts say.

“I think a lot of ordinary citizens are hardly moved by the deal and many will wait to see if there are any positives to come out of it,” said Michael Odhiambo, a peace expert for Eirene International in Uvira in eastern DRC, where 250,000 displaced people lost access to water due to Trump’s aid cutbacks.

Odhiambo suggests that for Congolese living in towns controlled by armed groups – like the mineral-rich area of Rubaya, held by M23 rebels – US involvement in the war may cause anxiety, rather than relief.

“There is fear that American peace may be enforced violently as we have seen in Iran. Many citizens simply want peace and even though [this is] dressed up as a peace agreement, there is fear it may lead to future violence that could be justified by America protecting its business interests.”

The agreement, signed by the Congolese and Rwandan foreign ministers in Washington on Friday, is an attempt to staunch the bleeding in a conflict that has raged in one form or another since the 1990s.

At the signing, Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe called it a “turning point”, while his Congolese counterpart, Therese Kayikwamba Wagner, said the moment had “been long in coming”.

“It will not erase the pain, but it can begin to restore what conflict has robbed many women, men and children of – safety, dignity and a sense of future,” Wagner said.

Trump has meanwhile said he deserves to be lauded for bringing the parties together, even suggesting that he deserves a Nobel prize for his efforts.

While the deal does aim to quell decades of brutal conflict, observers point to concerns with the fine print: That it was also brokered after Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi said in March that he was willing to partner with the US on a minerals-for-security deal.

Experts say US companies hope to gain access to minerals like tantalum, gold, cobalt, copper and lithium that they desperately need to meet the demand for technology and beat China in the race for Africa’s natural resources.

But this has raised fears among critics that the US’s main interest in the agreement is to further foreign extraction of eastern DRC’s rare earth minerals, which could lead to a replay of the violence seen in past decades, instead of a de-escalation.

M23 and FDLR: Will armed groups fall in line?

The main terms of the peace deal – which is also supported by Qatar – require Kinshasa and Kigali to establish a regional economic integration framework within 90 days and form a joint security coordination mechanism within 30 days. Additionally, the DRC should facilitate the disengagement of the armed group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), after which Rwanda will lift its “defensive measures” inside the DRC.

According to the United Nations and other international rights groups, there are about 3,000 to 4,000 Rwandan troops on the ground in eastern DRC, as Kigali actively backs M23 rebels who have seized key cities in the region this year. Rwanda has repeatedly denied these claims.

M23 is central to the current conflict in eastern DRC. The rebel group, which first took up arms in 2012, was temporarily defeated in 2013 before it reemerged in 2022. This year, it made significant gains, seizing control of the capitals of both North Kivu and South Kivu provinces in January and February.

Although separate Qatar-led mediation efforts are under way regarding the conflict with M23, the rebel group is not part of this agreement signed last week.

“This deal does not concern M23. M23 is a Congolese issue that is going to be discussed in Doha, Qatar. This is a deal between Rwanda and DRC,” Gatete Nyiringabo Ruhumuliza, a Rwandan political commentator, told Al Jazeera’s Inside Story, explaining that the priority for Kigali is the neutralisation of the FDLR – which was established by Hutus linked to the killings of Tutsis in the 1994 Rwanda genocide.

“Rwanda has its own defensive mechanisms [in DRC] that have nothing to do with M23,” Ruhumuliza said, adding that Kigali will remove these mechanisms only once the FDLR is dealt with.

But the omission of M23 from the US-brokered process points to one of the potential cracks in the deal, experts say.

“The impact of the agreement may be more severe on the FDLR as it explicitly requires that it ceases to exist,” said Eirene International’s Odhiambo. “The M23, however, is in a stronger position given the leverage they have from controlling Goma and Bukavu and the income they are generating in the process.”

The US-brokered process requires the countries to support ongoing efforts by Qatar to mediate peace between the DRC and M23. But by including this, the deal also “seems to temper its expectations regarding the M23″, Odhiambo argues.

Additionally, “M23 have the capacity to continue to cause mayhem even if Rwanda decided to act against it,” he said. “Therefore, I think the agreement will not in itself have a major impact on the M23.”

In terms of the current deal’s effect on the two countries, both risk being exposed for their role in the conflict, he added.

“I think that if Rwanda manages to prevail on the M23 as anticipated by the deal, it may prove the long-suspected proxy relationship between them.”

For DRC, he said Kinshasa executing the terms of the agreement will not augur well for the FDLR, but suggested calls to neutralise them may be a tall order.

“If [Kinshasa] manage to do it, then they remove Rwanda’s justification for its activities in the DRC. But to do so may be a big ask given the capacity of the FARDC [DRC military], and failure to do so will feed into the narrative of a dysfunctional and incapable state. Therefore, I think the DRC has more at stake than Rwanda.”

On the other hand, Tshisekedi’s government could score political points, according to Jakob Kerstan, DRC country director for the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Foundation (KAS), which promotes democracy and the rule of law.

“The sentiment … of the Congolese population, it’s very much like the conflict has been left behind: No one really cares in the world; the Congo is only being exploited, and so on. And the fact that there is now a global power caring about the DRC … I think this is a gain,” he said.

He feels there is also less pressure on Kinshasa’s government today than earlier this year when M23 was first making its rapid advance. “There are no protests any more. Of course, people are angry about the situation [in the east], but they kind of accept [it]. And they know that militarily they won’t be able to win it. The Kinshasa government, they know it as well.”

‘Peace for exploitation’?

Although Kinshasa appears to have readily offered the US access to the country’s critical minerals in exchange for security, many observers on the continent find such a deal concerning.

Congolese analyst Kambale Musavuli told Africa Now Radio that reports of the possible allocation of billions of dollars worth of minerals to the US, was the “Berlin Conference 2.0″, referring to the 19th-century meeting during which European powers divided up Africa. Musavuli also bemoaned the lack of accountability for human rights abuses.

Meanwhile, Congolese Nobel laureate Denis Mukwege called the agreement a “scandalous surrender of sovereignty” that validated foreign occupation, exploitation, and decades of impunity.

An unsettling undertone of the deal is “the spectre of resource exploitation, camouflaged as diplomatic triumph”, said political commentator Lindani Zungu, writing in an op-ed for Al Jazeera. “This emerging ‘peace for exploitation’ bargain is one that African nations, particularly the DRC, should never be forced to accept in a postcolonial world order.”

Meanwhile, for others, the US may be the ones who end up with a raw deal.

KAS’s Kerstan believes Trump’s people may have underestimated the complexities of doing business in the DRC – which has scared off many foreign companies in the past.

Even those who welcome this avenue towards peace acknowledge that the situation remains fragile.

Alexandria Maloney, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s US-based Africa Center, praised the Trump deal for combining diplomacy, development and strategic resource management. However, she warned against extraction without investment in infrastructure, skills and environmental safeguards. “Fragile governance structures in eastern DRC, particularly weak institutional capacity and fragmented local authority, could undercut enforcement or public trust,” Maloney told the think tank’s website.

Furthermore, China’s “entrenched footprint in the DRC’s mining sector may complicate implementation and heighten geopolitical tensions”, she added.

For analysts, the most optimistic assessments about the US’s role in this process appear to say: Thank goodness the Americans stepped in; while the least optimistic say: Are they in over their heads?

Overall, this Congo peace agreement seems to have few supporters outside multilateral diplomatic fora such as the UN and the African Union.

For many, the biggest caution is the exclusion of Congolese people and civil society organisations – which is where previous peace efforts have also failed.

“I have no hopes at all [in this deal],” said Vava Tampa, the founder of grassroots Congolese antiwar charity Save the Congo. “There isn’t much difference between this deal and the dozens of other deals that have been made in the past,” he told Al Jazeera’s Inside Story.

“This deal does two things really: It denies Congolese people – Congolese victims and survivors – justice; and simultaneously it also fuels impunity,” he said, calling instead for an international criminal tribunal for Congo and for perpetrators of violence in both Kigali and Kinshasa to be held accountable.

“Peace begins with justice,” Tampa said. “You cannot have peace or stability without justice.”

Years of fighting between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda may be at an end – thanks to a peace deal signed in the United States.

Rwanda has agreed to remove thousands of troops from eastern Congo that were supporting the Rwandan-backed armed group M23, as it took control of major cities and mining areas.

That was widely seen as a major escalation and stoked fears of a regional conflict.

So can this agreement succeed where many others have failed?

And is this deal really about US interests in Congolese minerals?

Presenter: Nick Clark

Guests:

• Gatete Nyiringabo Ruhumuliza – Political commentator and writer
• Zainab Usman – Senior fellow and director of the  Africa Program at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
• Vava Tampa – Founder and chief campaigner of Save the Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda have signed a peace deal in the United States to end years of fighting between the neighbouring countries.

Meeting at the State Department in Washington, DC, on Friday, foreign ministers from the two African countries signed the agreement that was mediated by the US and Qatar.

The deal would see Kinshasa and Kigali launching a regional economic integration framework within 90 days and forming a joint security coordination mechanism within 30 days. Under its terms, thousands of Rwandan soldiers are to withdraw from the DRC within three months.

It raises hopes for an end to fighting that has escalated with the advance of Rwanda-backed M23 rebels in the DRC’s mineral-rich provinces of North and South Kivu this year. The conflict has killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands more since January.

The escalation is just the latest in a decades-old cycle of tensions and violence, rooted in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

“This moment has been long in coming. It will not erase the pain, but it can begin to restore what conflict has robbed many women, men and children of safety, dignity and a sense of future,” said Congolese Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner.

“So now our work truly begins,” she added at the signing, saying the agreement would have to be followed by “disengagement, justice, and the return of displaced families, and the return of refugees, both to the DRC and Rwanda”.

“Those who have suffered the most are watching. They are expecting this agreement to be respected, and we cannot fail them,” she said.

M23 and FDLR

Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe said that the agreement heralded a “turning point”.

While Rwanda denies accusations it is backing M23, Kigali has demanded an end to another armed group in the DRC – the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) – which was established by Hutus linked to the killings of Tutsis in the 1994 Rwanda genocide.

During the signing, he insisted on “an irreversible and verifiable end” to the DRC’s “support” for the FDLR. The agreement calls for the “neutralisation” of the FDLR.

Reporting from Goma, the capital of the DRC’s North Kivu province, Al Jazeera’s Alain Uaykani said the deal was a “big step”, but there was “confusion” on the ground over the absence of any mention of when the M23 rebels would withdraw.

“Rwanda [is] always saying that they are not the ones who should ask M23 to leave, because this is a Congolese problem,” he said, adding that the rebels were appointing governors and controlling airports in the DRC’s provinces of North and South Kivu, whose capital cities they seized in January and February.

Kinshasa, the United Nations and Western powers say Rwanda is supporting M23 by sending troops and arms.

The deal does not explicitly address the gains of the M23 but calls for Rwanda to end “defensive measures” it has taken. Rwanda has sent at least a few thousand soldiers over the border in support of M23, according to UN experts, analysts and diplomats.

Critical minerals

The DRC-Rwanda deal will also help the US government and American companies gain access to critical minerals like tantalum, gold, cobalt, copper and lithium needed for much of the world’s technology at a time when the US and China are actively competing for influence in Africa.

Ahead of the signing on Friday, US President Donald Trump said, “We’re getting, for the United States, a lot of the mineral rights from the Congo as part of it. They’re so honoured to be here. They never thought they’d be coming.”

Welcoming the foreign ministers to the White House, he said: “The violence and destruction comes to an end, and the entire region begins a new chapter of hope and opportunity. This is a wonderful day.”

The DRC sits on vast untapped reserves of mineral wealth, estimated to be worth around $24 trillion. It has said it is losing around $1bn worth of minerals in illegal trading facilitated by the war.

The agreement was mediated through Massad Boulos, a Lebanese-American businessman and father-in-law of Trump’s daughter Tiffany, who was appointed by the president as a senior advisor on Africa.

“This is an important moment after 30 years of war,” said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who hosted the two foreign ministers at the Department of State for the signing of the agreement.

“It’s about allowing people to live. It’s about allowing people to now have dreams and hopes for a better life, for prosperity, for economic opportunity, for a family reunification, for all the things that make life worth living.

“Those things become impossible when there’s war and when there’s conflict,” he added.

Analysts see the deal as a major turning point but do not believe it will quickly end the fighting that has killed millions of people since the 1990s.