Uhuru warns against fragmented peace talks for eastern DRC

Former President Uhuru Kenyatta participates in a high-level meeting in Lomé, Togo, on Friday to coordinate peace efforts in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. [Photo/4thPresidentKE]

Former President Uhuru Kenyatta joined four other former African heads of state on Friday in Lomé, Togo, to streamline fragmented peace efforts for the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

He warned that competing mediation initiatives risk undermining progress toward ending a conflict that has killed thousands and displaced more than 7 million people.

The high-level meeting in the West African coastal capital brought together former presidents from Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, the Central African Republic and Botswana under Togolese President Faure Essozimna Gnassingbe's mediation to align multiple peace tracks that have emerged over the past year.

Kenyatta, who disclosed the meeting's outcomes on Monday, January 19, joined the panel of facilitators reviewing 12 months of diplomatic efforts that have yielded multiple frameworks but failed to halt escalating violence in North and South Kivu provinces.

Lomé, capital and largest city of Togo, with a population of 837,437, is located on the Gulf of Guinea at the southwest corner of the country.

The city has emerged as a key diplomatic hub for African Union peace initiatives in the Great Lakes region.

The consolidation effort comes as diplomatic interventions by the United States and Qatar have produced separate agreements between DRC and Rwanda, raising concerns about coordination gaps that could derail implementation of deals meant to stabilise a region rich in minerals but plagued by decades of conflict.

The conflict in eastern DRC has roots in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, when millions of Hutus fled into neighbouring Congo.

Rwanda has since viewed DRC as a hiding place for Hutu genocidaires, and its pursuit of them toppled a government in Kinshasa and led to the first and second Congo wars from 1996 to 2003.

The March 23 Movement (M23) rebel group launched a devastating offensive in January that captured Goma, the regional hub of eastern DRC on the Rwandan border, with support from 3,000 to 4,000 Rwandan ground troops.

UN officials reported nearly 3,000 people were killed in fighting for Goma, though estimates range between 900 people by UN early counts and 2,000 people by Congolese government figures.

M23 declared a unilateral ceasefire on February 4, but fighting resumed as the group expanded control across both Kivu provinces, capturing strategic cities and mining towns rich in coltan, cassiterite and gold.

In December 2023, M23 formed a political wing called the Congo River Alliance (Alliance Fleuve Congo or AFC), led by Corneille Nangaa, a former president of the Congolese electoral commission.

The coalition comprises armed opposition groups and political parties that seek regime change in Kinshasa.

The facilitators reviewed multiple diplomatic achievements from 2025, including the Washington Declaration of Principles signed April 25, the Washington Peace Agreement signed June 27, and the Regional Economic Integration Framework signed November 7 between the DRC and Rwanda.

DRC President Félix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame formally signed the Washington Accords on December 4 in a ceremony presided over by US President Donald Trump, but fighting continued despite the agreements.

Qatar-led negotiations produced the Doha Declaration of Principles, signed July 19 and the Doha Framework Agreement with eight thematic protocols signed November 15 between the DRC government and AFC/M23.

The mediators endorsed a revised architecture placing the Independent Joint Secretariat as technical support to the panel of facilitators, establishing clear lines of authority to prevent conflicting messages to warring parties.

"The meeting underscored the need to strengthen harmonisation, coherence and coordination among all peace initiatives, to capitalise on existing synergies and to avoid any fragmentation of mediation efforts to the detriment of peace and stability in eastern DRC," the communique stated.

Participants urged DRC and the AFC/M23 armed group to resume Doha negotiations without delay to finalise six pending protocols from the framework agreement.

The meeting reaffirmed Gnassingbe's availability to work jointly with American and Qatari mediators in implementing signed agreements while maintaining African Union (AU) leadership of the peace process.

Foreign ministers from DRC, Rwanda, Angola, Burundi and Uganda attended alongside representatives from the United States, Qatar and France, reflecting international investment in stabilising the Great Lakes region.

AU Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf and officials from the United Nations (UN), East African Community (EAC), Southern African Development Community (SADC) and International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) participated.

The gathering adopted a mediation framework document and facilitators' work plan to guide coordinated action, marking the first structured attempt to align competing peace initiatives under unified African leadership.

Participants committed to a structured African follow-up of agreement implementation and evolution of the peace process, addressing concerns that external mediators have operated independently without regional coordination.

The UN Security Council extended the mandate of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) until December 20 with an authorised troop ceiling of 11,500 military personnel and 600 military observers to support peacekeeping efforts.

The consolidation effort follows a Paris conference held on October 30 that mobilised international backing for stabilisation efforts in the region.

According to UN estimates, at least 2,900 people were killed in M23's seizure of Goma, and over 500,000 people have been displaced since January, exacerbating what was already one of the world's largest humanitarian crises.