DRC and M23 Rebel Alliance Agree on Peace Talks Roadmap Amid Ongoing Fighting

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and an M23-led rebel alliance have agreed on a roadmap for peace talks, according to a joint statement, as fighting continues in the country’s east. The statement on Saturday said the parties had developed a “roadmap setting out sequenced steps and timelines for negotiations” under a framework agreement signed in the Qatari capital, Doha, in November.

The roadmap followed five days of talks in Switzerland, from August 17 to August 21, that also included representatives from the United States, Qatar, Togo, Switzerland and the African Union Commission. The two sides said they had agreed on “a standardised method for reporting” ceasefire violations and would set up a mechanism to address problems implementing the Doha agreement. A ceasefire verification mission is due to arrive on Monday in Minembwe, an eastern region in South Kivu province.

Earlier this month, the DRC handed over 15 prisoners to the Congo River Alliance (AFC) and M23 in a transfer facilitated by the International Committee of the Red Cross, as part of the peace process.

Continued fighting

The security situation remains fragile, however, with fighting continuing on the ground. On Saturday, an AFC/M23 spokesman, Lawrence Kanyuka, claimed that DRC “coalition forces” had launched air raids using kamikaze drones against densely populated areas in the Minembwe region earlier that day. “These bombings caused civilian casualties and significant damage to civilian infrastructure,” he said in a post on X. Al Jazeera could not immediately verify the claim.

The United Nations warned in July that the security situation in the provinces of North and South Kivu in the eastern DRC has been further destabilised by the growing use of drones by the warring sides.

An Ebola outbreak in the region has also compounded the crisis, with some 2,500 people having died from the virus since May.

The conflict in the eastern DRC reignited in 2021, when M23 restarted its offensive there. The armed group has since seized swathes of territory, including the provincial capitals of Goma and Bukavu, which were captured in early 2025. The fighting has killed thousands and displaced an estimated 5.3 million people in the region.

The conflict has roots in the 1994 genocide by extremist Hutus against Tutsis in Rwanda and the collapse of the Mobutu Sese Seko government in what was then Zaire. The DRC, the UN and Western governments have accused Rwanda of backing M23, which is led by ethnic Tutsis, with troops and weapons, but Kigali denies the allegation. Rwanda in turn accuses DRC of supporting Hutu militias such as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) – a claim Kinshasa denies.