Geneva talks put Rwanda-DRC peace deal to the test

Representatives of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda will reconvene in Geneva on September 16 and 17 for a two-day session of the Joint Security Coordination Mechanism to review progress on the Washington Accords. The forum, which includes mediators from the United States, Qatar, Togo and the African Union Commission, was created to monitor and coordinate fulfilment of security commitments set out after the 2025 peace agreement.

The talks come against a background of continuing violence in the eastern DRC and disputes over how key obligations should be carried out. Central to the agenda are the DRC’s pledge to neutralise the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and Rwanda’s commitment to disengage its forces and lift defensive measures along the border. Both steps are presented in the Washington process as linked: progress on one side affects expectations of the other.

Observers and the parties themselves say progress has been uneven. A September forecast from Security Council Report noted ongoing clashes between the Congolese Armed Forces (FARDC) and the M23 in North and South Kivu, and it reported that the FDLR neutralisation and Rwanda’s lifting of defensive measures have not been declared complete. Kinshasa has said a faction of the FDLR signed a disarmament, demobilisation and cantonment protocol on July 28, while Kigali rejects negotiations with the FDLR and insists on its neutralisation.

The talks build on earlier JSCM work, including a meeting in Geneva on August 12-13 where the parties agreed to advance two monitoring and verification initiatives and asked the United States to provide feedback. The DRC also outlined a DDR plan for the FDLR and the sides scheduled a trilateral planning conference in October to produce a revised operations order. Beyond the bilateral agenda, the process requires DRC and Rwanda support for a separate Qatar-led dialogue between Kinshasa and M23, which produced the Doha Framework signed on November 15, 2025 by the Congolese government and the Congo River Alliance (AFC/M23).