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A conflict began between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda in 2022 after Rwandan forces intervened in the DRC to provide military support to the March 23 Movement (M23) rebel group, including fighting alongside them against the Congolese military (FARDC) and pro-government militias. A peace agreement between Rwanda and the DRC was signed on 27 June 2025, though fighting has continued and Rwandan troops remain in the DRC.
Since the Second Congo War the eastern provinces of the DRC have been the site of an ongoing insurgency by various rebel groups, most notably the March 23 Movement (M23) in North Kivu and its Twirwaneho affiliate in South Kivu, and the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) in Ituri and North Kivu. The current stage of the conflict is related to an ongoing campaign that began in March 2022 by the M23 Movement, which the DRC, United Nations, United States, and other Western countries accuse Rwanda of not only supporting but actively fighting for the insurgents. Rwanda and M23 have also accused the DRC of working together with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), an ethnic Hutu paramilitary group that took part in the Rwandan Genocide. Both the Congo and Rwanda deny they support the FDLR and M23, respectively, contrary to research and reports that confirm both sides' allegations.
Burundi, which has accused Rwanda of orchestrating a 2015 coup attempt, deployed troops to assist the DRC against the M23 offensive. There were as many as 25,000 Burundian troops in eastern Congo until early February 2025, when the majority withdrew, leaving around 3,000. The MONUSCO peacekeeping mission has maintained that it is not involved in the conflict apart from its role in defending the region from militants, but has been accused by Rwanda of taking sides due to its cooperation with the Congolese armed forces. Meanwhile, the Congolese government has asked MONUSCO peacekeepers to leave the DRC due to a "failure to protect civilians from armed groups."
There were two efforts at peace negotiations organized between the DRC and Rwanda: one hosted by Kenya in 2022, which failed, and another hosted by Angola in 2024, the latter leading to a ceasefire agreement in August. Fighting between Congolese forces and Rwandan-backed M23 rebels resumed in October 2024 after having slowed down, and intensified towards the end of the year. Planned negotiations between Rwandan president Paul Kagame and Congolese president Félix Tshisekedi in December were cancelled over disagreements about preconditions. The Rwanda Defence Force had up to 4,000 troops in the DRC by a UN estimate in December 2024, and this increased to as much as 12,000 by March 2025.
During January 2025, the rebels carried out a successful offensive on Goma, the capital of the DRC's North Kivu province, displacing over 400,000 people and causing the DRC to cut off its diplomatic ties with Rwanda. The Congolese government called Rwandan military support for the rebels a "declaration of war." The fall of Goma after several days of fighting in late January has been the largest escalation of the Kivu conflict since M23 first occupied the city in 2012. M23 continued its advance into the rest of North Kivu and into South Kivu during February, capturing the latter's capital Bukavu. The African Union has called on M23 to withdraw to prevent the "balkanization" of the DR Congo and the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 2773 that also called on Rwanda to end its support for M23. Following negotiations in June 2025 brokered by the United States, Rwanda and the DRC agreed to a preliminary peace treaty. The final agreement consists of Rwanda withdrawing its troops within 90 days and the DRC ending all support for the FDLR. As of September 2025, Rwandan troops have not withdrawn. Rwanda was accused of violating the agreement, It has also been questioned if the peace agreement even resulted in the conflict ending.
Background
When the Rwandan Civil War ended in 1994 as a victory for the Rwandan Patriotic Front, a Tutsi-led army founded by Rwandan exiles in Uganda with the support of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, the Hutu extremists that perpetrated the genocide against Tutsis in Rwanda fled across the border of neighboring Zaire. These elements, consisting of the former Rwandan armed forces and the Interahamwe paramilitary group, entered the Kivu region in eastern Zaire along with 1.5 million Hutu civilian refugees from Rwanda. There the Hutu militants established militia groups to wage an insurgency against the new RPF-led government. Zaire, led by the regime of Mobutu Sese Seko, had been undergoing economic and political decline, and its weak state institutions were not capable of maintaining order in the vast country. There is also evidence that the state provided support to the Hutu militias.
Also present were the Banyamulenge, a community of ethnic Tutsis from Rwanda that represented a minority in the South Kivu province of Zaire and had been discriminated against. During late 1995 and early 1996, large-scale fighting broke out involving the Hutu refugees, the Banyamulenge, the rest of the population in Kivu, and the Zairian military. The Banyamulenge took up arms during the summer of 1996 and Rwanda started providing training and other support. This assistance allowed Rwanda to strengthen its influence in the region, secure economic interests, and establish de facto control through its local allies. Its military became involved in border clashes with Zairian troops. These events, beginning the First Congo War, have been described as "to a large degree an extension of the Rwandan civil war," due to the close relations that developed between the Banyamulenge and other Congolese Tutsis involved in the rebellion with the Rwandan government. General Paul Kagame stated in a media interview in July 1997 that Rwanda planned and directed the Banyamulenge rebellion in eastern Zaire and that its troops had participated in the capture of multiple cities.
The Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire (AFDL) was founded by a leading member of Mobutu's political opposition, Laurent-Désiré Kabila, in October 1996. The AFDL recruited fighters in Zaire and consisted of both Tutsi and non-Tutsi members. Rwanda leveraged the presence of Hutu extremists as a diplomatic pretext to pursue broader political and economic objectives. AFDL and Banyamulenge offensives targeting Hutu extremist factions resulted in widespread sexual violence, extrajudicial executions, forced recruitment of child soldiers, and abductions of civilians. Between February and May 1997, the AFDL advanced westward in its campaign to overthrow Mobutu. The Zairean military offered little resistance, and Kabila's forces, supported by multiple African nations, reached Kinshasa in May 1997. Mobutu fled into exile, and Kabila assumed the presidency, renaming the country the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Following Kabila's ascension, Rwandan troops withdrew from the DRC and encouraged Congolese Tutsis from North and South Kivu to return to Rwanda. However, this directive was met with suspicion among Congolese Tutsis, who, despite their reliance on Rwandan support, maintained a strong sense of independence. Tensions between the Rwandan Defense Force (RDF) and Congolese Tutsi officers who had fought alongside Rwandan forces also emerged. While the Rwandan government considered these officers part of its military due to prior collaboration, many Congolese Tutsi fighters asserted that they had only joined Rwandan forces to "liberate" the DRC. One notable episode illustrating this friction was the Murekezi mutiny in May 1997. Lieutenant Murekezi, a Tutsi from Masisi, led a rebellion against the withdrawal of Rwandan forces, arguing that Congolese Tutsis should not be compelled to relocate to Rwanda. His mutiny was brutally suppressed, culminating in his execution by a Rwandan commander in Goma in November 1997. Many of his followers were killed, imprisoned, or redeployed under diminished conditions.
Despite coming to power with external support, Kabila soon distanced himself from his former allies. He continued Mobutu's authoritarian governance style, appointed AFDL members to key positions, and failed to hold elections. Increasingly portraying himself as a Congolese nationalist, Kabila became wary of Rwanda's influence and suspected that some Tutsi members of the AFDL were advancing Rwandan rather than Congolese interests. In July 1998, fearing a coup d'état, Kabila dismissed Rwandan General James Kabarebe from his position as Chief of Staff and ordered all Rwandan soldiers to withdraw from Congolese territory. This decision prompted Rwanda and Uganda to back a new rebellion to depose Kabila. On 2 August 1998, a mutiny within the Congolese military, the Forces Armées Congolaises (FAC), was announced on state television in Goma, leading to the formation of the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie (RCD-Goma), a Tutsi-led rebel group backed by Rwanda. That same day, Goma fell under RCD-Goma and RPA control without significant resistance. The rebels quickly seized large portions of South Kivu, North Kivu, and northern Katanga. The Rwandan army exploited the situation to facilitate large-scale looting of Congolese mineral resources, while crimes against civilians escalated. Goma remained under rebel control for nearly three years, from August 1998 to January 2001.
Timeline
2022
March 2022 Soon after the beginning of the offensive, the Democratic Republic of the Congo claimed that Rwanda supported the insurgent operation, a claim which was denied by the Rwandan government and the rebels. International Crisis Group researcher Onesphore Sematumba argued that claims about Rwandan aid were believable. He suggested that the resurgence of M23 was probably influenced by Rwanda's wish to stop an infrastructure project which would link the DR Congo and Uganda.
May 2022 Congolese forces said that they had captured two Rwandan soldiers that had been sent into the DRC in disguise in May. Both were released on 11 June. On 23 May, FARDC troops reportedly shelled Musanze District, in the Northern Province of Rwanda, injuring several people. Two days later, the DRC ordered the suspension of all RwandAir flights. Rwanda condemned the action, and RwandAir decided to retaliate by cancelling flights to Kinshasa, Lubumbashi, and Goma.
In response to these conflicts, African Union Chairman and President of Senegal Macky Sall said on 29 May that the African Union was supporting a "peaceful resolution" to the tensions.
June 2022 Mediation attempts continued into the following month; on 2 June, Angolan President João Lourenço attempted to mediate a resolution between the two countries in Luanda. On 8 June, Alexander De Croo, the Prime Minister of Belgium, compared the situation in the eastern DRC to that of Ukraine in a visit to Kinshasa, additionally making comments implying his support for the Congo in its border crisis with Rwanda.
On 9 June, the DRC said it had discovered that 500 Rwandan special forces in disguise had been sent into the area near the town of Tshanzu in North Kivu. The day afterwards, the DRC accused Rwanda of firing rockets at a school in Biruma, killing two children and seriously injuring another person of unspecified age. Rwanda also said that the Congo had fired rockets into Western Rwanda from the direction of Bunagana.