DR Congo and M23 Head Back to the Table as Fighting Grinds On in the East
The Democratic Republic of Congo and the M23 rebel movement are expected to resume peace negotiations in Switzerland, offering a fragile diplomatic opening in a conflict that has ravaged the country's mineral-rich east and drawn in its neighbours.
Any talks will unfold against continued violence. Fighting between government forces and the AFC/M23 alliance has intensified across the Kivus, marked by the growing use of offensive drones and the jamming and spoofing of GPS signals — a sign of how technologically sophisticated, and how entrenched, the conflict has become. Pro-government forces have reportedly retaken villages in the South Kivu highlands even as the rebels hold key ground.
The international dimension looms large. M23's earlier seizure of Uvira, a strategic city on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, came with the direct support of Rwandan forces, according to UN and Western assessments — a development that risks destabilising the wider Great Lakes region. The United States has sanctioned entities and individuals accused of smuggling minerals out of M23-controlled territory into Rwanda.
The UN Security Council, meanwhile, has renewed the mandate of its peacekeeping mission in the country, even as that force struggles to protect civilians amid renewed rebel offensives. Millions have been displaced by years of fighting in the east.
A return to negotiations is welcome, but the region has seen ceasefires and peace frameworks collapse before. The test will be whether the parties — and the outside powers backing them — are willing to convert talks in Geneva into calm on the ground.
