# DR Congo and Rwanda agree to new steps in stalled peace process
The Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda said they had agreed to a series of coordinated steps to ease tensions after talks hosted by the United States in Washington. The joint statement, issued with US involvement, was another attempt to calm a conflict that has continued despite previous diplomacy.
The latest pledge does not amount to a settlement. It comes after a peace deal signed in December and after a fresh round of sanctions by Washington earlier this month targeting Rwanda’s defence forces and senior officials over accusations that Kigali supports the M23 rebel movement. The BBC report described the new statement as an effort to de-escalate while the situation on the ground remained volatile.
The statement said the parties would respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. It also said Rwanda would disengage its forces and lift “defensive measures” in defined areas of DR Congo territory. In parallel, DR Congo would intensify time-bound efforts to neutralise the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR, which Rwanda views as a genocidal militia.
That language captures the central fault line in the conflict. Rwanda says the FDLR still threatens its security and justifies its military posture. DR Congo and its supporters counter that Rwanda is directly backing M23 and helping prolong the fighting in eastern Congo. Rwanda denies backing the rebels and says its presence is defensive.
The timing is significant because the war has not eased since the December peace deal. Days after that agreement, M23 entered the Congolese city of Uvira near the Burundi border before later withdrawing under US pressure. The group still holds large parts of eastern DR Congo, including Goma and Bukavu, the region’s two biggest cities.
US officials have now added pressure of their own. Earlier this month, Washington said the risk of spillover into a broader regional war remained acute and imposed sanctions in response to alleged Rwandan support for the rebels. Rwanda rejected the accusations as a distortion of the facts, while also accusing DR Congo of violating the peace accord through drone attacks and ground offensives.
The battlefield picture remains tense. Recent drone strikes in DR Congo have already killed civilians, including a French national working for the UN and two others. The BBC report said the wider fighting has also seen both armies and rebel forces rely increasingly on drones in the conflict zone.
The new statement therefore reads less like a breakthrough than a controlled attempt to keep diplomacy alive. It creates an opening for further action, but the underlying war, the competing narratives and the absence of trust all remain in place.
For now, the agreement is best understood as a pause in rhetoric rather than an end to the violence. Whether it translates into durable change will depend on whether each side follows through on the steps it has now publicly accepted.
