Following high-stakes talks in Washington, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda have agreed on “concrete steps” to de-escalate their conflict. The renewed diplomatic push comes after a US-brokered peace agreement, signed by President Donald Trump last December, failed to halt fighting in eastern DRC. The US recently imposed severe sanctions on the Rwandan Defence Force, accusing Kigali of backing the M23 rebel group’s violent territorial expansion. Under the new agreement, Rwanda pledged to lift “defensive measures” in Congolese territory, while the DRC committed to neutralizing the FDLR, a Hutu militia that Kigali views as a genocidal threat. The move grants the US administration a temporary diplomatic victory, projecting global leadership by keeping both rival African nations engaged in a Western-mediated peace process. However, civilians in eastern DRC continue to suffer because, without verifiable disengagement timelines and FDLR neutralization benchmarks, the agreement risks becoming another unenforced ceasefire.
BBC
