Goma, DR Congo
African Union mediators on the conflict in the eastern DR Congo arrived on Monday in an M23-controlled area to meet senior officials from the armed group, AFP journalists saw.
The eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has been riven by decades of conflict, with myriad armed groups fighting over its mineral-rich territory, including the M23.
The Rwanda-backed anti-governmental group seized further swathes of the eastern provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu last year.
After a lightning offensive, the provincial capitals, Goma and Bukavu, fell to the M23 after fierce fighting with Congolese armed forces.
Peace efforts led by Qatar and the United States last year sought to end the crisis, leading to the signing of two separate accords.
The Congolese government and the M23 signed a commitment towards a ceasefire in Doha in July 2025, while the DRC and Rwanda formalised a US-brokered peace deal in December in Washington.
However, fighting continued on the ground.
New talks were held in August in Switzerland, involving representatives from the United States, Qatar and the African Union.
Three of the AU’s panel of five facilitators, all former African heads of state, were in the delegation that arrived in Goma on Monday.
They were Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta, Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and Botswanan Mokgweetsi Masisi, AFP journalists saw.
They were received at the office of the M23’s political branch, the Congo River Alliance.
A meeting with the United Nations mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) was also scheduled.
A first delegation to verify the ceasefire between the Congolese army and M23 was deployed to the region in late August.
str-cld/clt/kjm
