Rwanda, DRC agree on steps to de-escalate tensions – SABC News

The United States (US) hosted representatives from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda in Washington on Tuesday and Wednesday, with talks focused on the stalled peace process in eastern DRC.
It marked the first encounter between the parties since the US Treasury Department sanctioned the Rwanda Defence Force and four senior officers on March 2nd.
Washington has blamed Rwandan support for the M23 rebel group for the continued violence in eastern DRC. Rwanda denies backing M23.
M23 staged a lightning advance in eastern DRC  in January 2025 and still holds large swathes of territory.
The DRC and Rwanda “agreed to a series of coordinated steps to de-escalate tensions and advance progress on the ground,” according to a joint statement by the US, DRC and Rwanda released by the State Department on Wednesday.
“These efforts include a mutual commitment to specific measures to support each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, the scheduled disengagement of forces/lifting of defensive measures by Rwanda in defined areas in DRC territory, time-bound and intensified efforts by the DRC to neutralise the FDLR, and the protection of all civilians.”
The FDLR group was founded by Hutus who fled Rwanda after participating in the 1994 genocide that killed close to one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus. M23 says it is fighting to protect ethnic Tutsi communities in eastern DRC.
Rwanda and DRC signed a peace deal in Washington in December as part of US President Donald Trump’s push to broker peace and attract billions of dollars in Western investment.
Days after that ceremony, however, M23 rebels entered the eastern DRC city of Uvira, near the Burundian border, in the war’s biggest escalation in months.
They later pulled out under US pressure. Washington said this month, however, that the rebels’ continued presence near Burundi’s border “carries the risk of escalating the conflict into a broader regional war.”

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