DR Congo leader accuses Rwanda of 'violating' Trump-brokered peace deal

(L-R) U.S. President Donald Trump, Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi hold up copies of the peace accord they signed during a ceremony at the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace on December 04, 2025 in Washington, DC. [AFP]

The Democratic Republic of Congo's President Felix Tshisekedi on Monday accused Rwanda of "violating" an agreement aimed at ending the eastern Congolese conflict just days after its signing.

Violence in the mineral-rich eastern Democratic Republic of Congo intensified early this year when Rwanda-backed fighters from the M23 militia seized the key eastern city of Goma in January.

Hopes have been high that peace could finally be within reach for the region, plagued by three decades of conflict, after the Congolese and Rwandan leaders on Thursday signed a peace deal in Washington at US President Donald Trump's urging.

The deal pushed by Trump includes an economic component intended to secure US supplies of critical minerals present in the region, as Washington seeks to challenge China's dominance in the sector.

Though Trump hailed the agreement signed by Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame as a "miracle", many observers doubted that the deal would hold, and fresh fighting the very next day forced hundreds of people to flee across the border into Rwanda.

"Despite our good faith and the recently ratified agreement, it is clear that Rwanda is already violating its commitments," Tshisekedi said in an address delivered from parliament to the nation, referring to attacks by Rwandan forces in several locations in South Kivu province in recent days.

"On the very day after the signing, units of the Rwandan Defence Forces carried out and supported attacks with heavy weaponry," Tshisekedi said.

Mass displacements

Since taking up arms again in 2021 the M23 has seized swathes of the mineral-rich Congolese east, displacing tens of thousands and leading to a spiralling humanitarian crisis.

Recent days have seen fighters from the M23 clash in South Kivu province with the Congolese army, which is backed by thousands of Burundian soldiers.

On Sunday, UN experts said Rwanda's army and the Kigali-backed M23 group had carried out executions and forced mass displacements of people in the eastern DRC.

The M23 and Rwandan soldiers committed "summary executions, arrests and arbitrary detentions", and caused the mass displacement of populations, the experts' report said.

The militia has since begun to push on towards Uvira, the last major town in South Kivu province yet to fall to the M23.

On Monday, clashes were reported near Luvungi, a settlement about 60 kilometres (38 miles) north of Uvira, according to military sources. Bombings also struck Sange, which sits halfway between Uvira and Luvungi, still according to military sources.

Those latest clashes come at the end of a bloody year. Hard on the heels of capturing Goma, the M23 backed by Kigali and its army also took the South Kivu provincial capital of Bukavu.

While denying offering the M23 military support, Rwanda insists it faces an existential threat from armed groups with links to the 1994 Rwandan genocide of the Tutsis present in the Congolese east.

Burundian involvement 

The eastern DRC has seen a procession of ceasefire agreements brokered and broken in quick succession without putting an end to the fighting, which has raged since the 1994 genocide.

At times the conflict has seen neighbouring powers including Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi wade in to the fighting, either to back armed groups fighting against the Congolese government or to help the government in Kinshasa.

With Uvira sitting across Lake Tanganyika from its economic capital Bujumbara, Burundi views the prospect of the city falling to Rwanda-backed troops as an existential threat.

Burundi deployed about 10,000 soldiers to the eastern DRC in October 2023 as part of a military cooperation agreement.

According to several sources within the army, reinforcements have been sent in recent months, bringing the number of Burundian troops in the DRC to between 15,000 and 20,000 men.

At least 20 Burundian soldiers have been killed since last Monday on Congolese soil, Burundian military sources said on Saturday.

Witnesses and NGOs reported Congolese civilians fleeing to Burundi to avoid the violence. Population movements toward Rwanda were also observed by AFP journalists on site.