The war in eastern Congo

Why is there a war in eastern Congo?

Eastern Congo has been at war, on and off, since 1996. The war has local and regional roots. Many Kinyarwanda speakers, Hutu and Tutsi, have lived in the Kivus for generations, and their land and citizenship have long been disputed. A 1981 law took Congolese citizenship away from many of them. The regional root is the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, in which Hutu extremists killed between 800,000 and more than a million people, most of them Tutsi. When the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front took power, more than a million Hutu fled to Zaire, as DR Congo was then called. Among them were soldiers and militiamen who had carried out the killing. Some of them founded the FDLR in 2000.

Rwanda's army invaded Zaire in 1996 to break up the refugee camps, and it helped rebels topple President Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997. A UN report in 2010 said Rwandan troops and their Congolese allies killed several tens of thousands of Hutu refugees in those years. It said some of the killings could be judged genocide if proven in court. Rwanda rejected the report. In 1998 Rwanda and Uganda backed a new rebellion, and the Second Congo War drew in nine countries. The International Rescue Committee estimated that 5.4 million people died from 1998 to 2007, mostly from hunger and disease. Some researchers say that figure is too high. The main fighting ended in 2003 under a peace deal, but armed groups stayed in the east.

M23 is named after a peace deal signed on March 23, 2009. The deal brought a Tutsi-led rebel group, the CNDP, into the army. In 2012 its former fighters mutinied, saying the government had broken the deal. They held Goma for 11 days and were defeated in 2013 by the army and a UN brigade. M23 returned in November 2021. It says it protects Congolese Tutsi and other minorities from ethnic violence and from the FDLR. It also wants Congolese Tutsi refugees to be able to go home. Some of them have lived in camps in Rwanda for more than 25 years. M23 accuses the government of breaking its promises. The Congolese government calls M23 a terrorist group and a front for Rwanda. UN experts say Rwanda commands M23's operations. Rwanda denies backing M23 and says it must protect its border from the FDLR.

Who controls what in eastern Congo?

M23, now part of the FRN, holds Goma, Bukavu and much of North and South Kivu, including the Rubaya coltan mines. It runs its own administration there, with its own governors, taxes and banks, UN experts say. The army and its allies hold Uvira, Walikale town and Bunia.

The front lines shift often. In early October 2026 the army and the Wazalendo said they had retaken Remeka and other places in southern Masisi. In late October fighting was reported in Walikale territory and in the Walungu and Fizi areas of South Kivu. On October 27 the FRN said it was advancing on Uvira, and the army and the governor of South Kivu said the city was calm. Burundian troops reinforce the army in South Kivu. Ugandan troops fight the ADF, an Islamic State affiliate, farther north in Ituri and North Kivu.

The UN peacekeeping mission, MONUSCO, left South Kivu in 2024 but is still in North Kivu and Ituri. The Security Council renewed its mandate in December 2025 until December 20, 2026.

How many people have died in the war in eastern Congo?

No one knows exactly. The Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) counted 9,172 deaths from organized violence in DR Congo in 2025, the most in Africa after Sudan. The count covers all of the country's armed groups, including the ADF in the northeast. In the battle for Goma in January 2025, nearly 3,000 people were killed, by early UN estimates. Rwanda said shells fired from Congo during the battle killed at least five civilians in its border town of Rubavu.

The fighting has also driven millions from their homes. About 5.8 million people were displaced inside DR Congo in 2026, the European Union's humanitarian office says, down from more than 7 million in 2025 as some went home. Most of them are in North Kivu, South Kivu, Ituri and Tanganyika. Another 1.18 million Congolese were refugees abroad at the end of 2025 (UNHCR).

UN experts say all parties have committed abuses against civilians. UN figures name M23 as the main non-state perpetrator and Congo's army as the main state one. M23 also leads in cases of sexual violence verified by the UN. After M23 and Rwandan troops took Uvira in December 2025, they killed people suspected of links to the army or the Wazalendo, the experts found. When the Wazalendo returned in January, they looted the city and killed people accused of helping M23. In South Kivu's highlands, the army and its allies have besieged Minembwe since mid-2025. The town is home to Banyamulenge Tutsi and is held by M23 fighters and Twirwaneho, a Banyamulenge armed group. M23 and Twirwaneho say the army and Burundi's troops are trying to exterminate the Banyamulenge. The experts found civilians cut off from aid, and Twirwaneho stopping them from leaving. They did not confirm that civilians were deliberately targeted.

Since May 2026 an Ebola outbreak has spread through eight provinces, including North and South Kivu. It is caused by the Bundibugyo strain, for which no vaccine is approved. By October 29 the ECDC counted 10,274 confirmed cases and 4,992 deaths in DR Congo, with Ituri the worst hit. WHO declared it a global health emergency on May 17, 2026.

Why do Congo's minerals matter?

Eastern Congo has coltan, the ore of tantalum, which goes into phones and other electronics. It also has tin and gold. M23 has held the Rubaya mines in Masisi since April 2024. The UN says the Rubaya area supplies more than 15% of the world's tantalum. UN experts estimated in 2024 that the mines produced about 120 tonnes of coltan a month and that M23 earned about $800,000 a month by taxing it. In 2026 they reported that output had grown and that the minerals were smuggled to Rwanda and mixed into its exports. Rwanda rejects the experts' findings. Congo's government says the minerals, not the FDLR, are what Rwanda is really after. President Kagame said in February 2026 that if Rwanda were in Congo for its minerals, it would be much richer than it is. UN experts also say pro-government Wazalendo groups levy illegal taxes in South Kivu and fight each other over the money. They say large amounts of gold from Ituri are smuggled to Uganda. A collapse at Rubaya killed more than 200 people in January 2026.

DR Congo also mined 74.2% of the world's cobalt in 2025 and is the second-largest copper producer. These mines are in the far south, more than 1,000 km from the fighting. On December 4, 2025, the day of the Washington Accords, DR Congo signed a separate deal that gives US companies preferential access to a reserve of mineral assets.