New Delhi: The government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the M23-led rebel alliance have agreed on a roadmap for further peace negotiations after five days of internationally mediated talks in Switzerland. The accord sets out a sequence and timetable for discussions, but it does not constitute a fresh ceasefire or resolve the disputes that have repeatedly frustrated efforts to end the war in eastern Congo.
Representatives of the government and the Alliance Fleuve Congo/March 23 Movement, or AFC/M23, met from August 17 to August 21 alongside officials from Qatar, the United States, Switzerland, Togo and the African Union Commission. Togo participated in its capacity as the African Union mediator, according to a joint statement released by the US state department.
The delegations reviewed the progress made and obstacles encountered under the Doha Framework for a Comprehensive Peace Agreement, signed in the Qatari capital on November 15, 2025. They also discussed how to implement existing commitments and complete negotiations on the protocols that remain unsettled.
The resulting roadmap establishes phased steps and timelines for those negotiations, although its detailed schedule has not been made public. Both parties pledged to show flexibility within the Doha framework and agreed that the order in which protocols are negotiated need not determine the order in which they are implemented.
The agreement also seeks to strengthen monitoring of alleged ceasefire breaches, a persistent source of dispute between the two sides. The parties accepted the need for a standardized reporting system and agreed to establish a mechanism that would review implementation, identify delays and address disagreements over their respective obligations.
Some progress has been reported in operationalizing the Expanded Joint Verification Mechanism Plus, including the establishment of its secretariat. A reconnaissance mission was conducted on August 20 with logistical support from the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or Monusco, ahead of the mechanism’s first ceasefire-verification mission, scheduled for August 24 in Minembwe, South Kivu.
That mission will be an early test of whether the diplomatic understanding can produce verifiable changes on the ground. Minembwe and its surrounding highlands have become a major flashpoint involving Congolese forces, M23 fighters, local armed groups and forces associated with neighbouring countries.
The security situation remained fragile even as the roadmap was announced. An AFC/M23 spokesman, Lawrence Kanyuka, alleged that forces aligned with the Congolese government had used explosive drones against populated areas around Minembwe on August 22, although the allegation could not be independently verified, Al Jazeera reported.
The accusation underlined the principal weakness in the peace process: the parties have repeatedly signed declarations while continuing to blame each other for battlefield attacks. A standardized verification system could reduce the scope for competing claims, but only if monitors receive access to contested areas and both sides accept their findings.
The Doha framework was itself the product of months of Qatari mediation and followed a declaration of principles signed in July 2025. It comprises eight protocols, including provisions covering prisoner exchanges and ceasefire monitoring, but implementation of the first measures was slow and six protocols still required further negotiation when the framework was signed, Reuters reported at the time.
A confidence-building step came earlier in August when the Congolese government handed over 15 prisoners to AFC/M23 in a transfer facilitated by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Such measures have kept the negotiating process alive, but they have yet to produce a durable cessation of hostilities or an agreed political and security arrangement for rebel-held territory.
M23 traces its name to a peace agreement signed on March 23, 2009, under which members of an earlier rebel movement were to be integrated into Congo’s armed forces and political system. Former fighters mutinied in 2012, accusing the government of failing to implement that agreement, and the movement returned as a major military force in 2022 after several years of relative inactivity.
The rebellion escalated dramatically in early 2025 when M23 captured Goma and Bukavu, the capitals of North Kivu and South Kivu, respectively. The group subsequently consolidated control over extensive territory in Congo’s mineral-rich east, including areas associated with the production and trade of gold, tin and coltan.
The UN and several western governments say Rwanda has provided troops, weapons and operational assistance to M23, an allegation Kigali denies. Rwanda maintains that its security is threatened by the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR, a Congo-based armed group linked to perpetrators of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.
Kinshasa, in turn, accuses Rwanda of using security concerns to exercise influence in eastern Congo and benefit from the region’s mineral resources. The dispute has made the rebellion more than a domestic insurgency, drawing neighbouring states into a volatile security contest across the Great Lakes region.
The Doha negotiations between Kinshasa and AFC/M23 are distinct from the US-mediated diplomatic track between the governments of DR Congo and Rwanda. Progress in one process is unlikely to end the conflict unless the other addresses cross-border troop movements, armed-group support, territorial control and the FDLR question.
The humanitarian consequences remain severe, with the UN reporting in March that about 6.4 million people were internally displaced across the country and 26.6 million were expected to face food insecurity during 2026. The organization has also documented killings, conflict-related sexual violence, forced recruitment and attacks affecting civilians by armed groups and state actors, according to a Monusco briefing.
For India, which has a long history of contributing military and medical personnel to UN peacekeeping operations in Congo, the effectiveness of the verification arrangements carries wider institutional significance. Monusco’s logistical role demonstrates how UN missions can support political agreements even when their ability to impose peace on heavily armed belligerents remains limited.
The Swiss talks have therefore restored momentum to a peace process that was in danger of stalling, but the roadmap remains a procedural achievement rather than a settlement. Its value will be determined by whether the parties allow credible monitoring, honour interim commitments and translate diplomatic timelines into a measurable reduction in violence.