As diplomats gathered in Geneva for a new round of peace talks aimed at ending the festering conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, reports from the ground told a grimmer story: fighting between the FARDC army and M23 rebel forces has shifted into previously stable highland territories in North Kivu, displacing tens of thousands of people and raising fears that violence is spreading into regions that had largely escaped the worst of the decade-long insurgency.
The Geneva talks, convened under the auspices of the African Union and with support from the United Nations peace envoy office, bring together representatives of the Congolese government, a broad coalition of armed groups, and regional mediating powers including Angola and Zambia. The objective is to build on a fragile ceasefire agreement reached in Luena in August 2025 and move toward a comprehensive political framework.
Fighting Moves Into the Highlands
For years, the M23 rebellion has been concentrated in the Rutshuru and Nyiragongo territories of North Kivu, close to the borders with Uganda and Rwanda. The group insurgency, which the DRC government says is backed by Rwanda, has displaced more than a million people. Now, fighting has pushed south and east into the highland areas of Masisi — territories that had remained relatively untouched.
A priest working in the Masisi highlands told the UN humanitarian affairs office that the fighters are arriving in places where people thought they were safe. The UN displacement monitoring unit registered a significant spike in new arrivals at camps around Goma in the past two weeks.
The Roots of the Conflict
The M23 rebellion is the latest iteration of a conflict that has recurrently destabilised eastern DRC since the Rwandan genocide of 1994. The current incarnation draws on the Tutsi community in North Kivu and is driven by grievances about land rights, political marginalisation, and what its leaders describe as the failure of the Kinshasa government to honour past integration agreements. The DRC government insists the rebellion is a Rwandan proxy force.
What Geneva Can and Cannot Achieve
The Geneva talks have been described by participants as a listening exercise more than a formal negotiation in the first instance. Regional analysts say the honest assessment is that a comprehensive peace agreement is unlikely to emerge in the short term. What the talks can do is establish communication channels and prevent the conflict from expanding into new areas — a more modest but genuinely achievable goal.