DR Congo & Rwanda: Geneva talks test a fragile peace framework
GLOBAL SECURITYAFRICA
Officials from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda met in Geneva on September 16 and 17 to work through implementation of a peace framework the two countries signed in Washington more than a year ago, even as fighting continues in eastern DRC.
The talks center on the FDLR, an armed group that emerged from Rwanda's 1994 genocide and that Kigali says still threatens its security; Rwandan President Paul Kagame called efforts to neutralise the group "insufficient." A Congolese official countered that demobilisation "is being carried out in accordance with the Washington agreements." The dispute unfolds alongside a separate, Qatar-mediated track between Kinshasa and the Congo River Alliance over the M23 rebellion, which still holds the cities of Goma, captured in January 2025, and Bukavu.
A civil society activist in the region said "dialogue remains preferable to escalation," but for civilians in the east, displacement and violence have continued despite more than a year of diplomacy. Analysts say the framework's success will depend on concrete, verifiable commitments that address Rwanda's security concerns without ceding Congolese sovereignty over its own territory.