For several years now, and especially in recent months, the situation in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has been dramatic. This is largely due to the violent advance of the M23 militia, which, with the barely concealed support of neighbouring Rwanda, has taken control of much of the Kivu region, including its provincial capitals: Goma in the north and Bukavu in the south. These territorial gains have invariably been accompanied by the bloodshed of hundreds of civilians.

In recent weeks, however, the crisis has entered a phase of heightened volatility. To clearly understand what has unfolded, it is useful to review the main events in chronological order. The first occurred on 4 December, when Donald Trump brought together Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame at the White House. There, both leaders ratified a peace agreement that they had theoretically signed on 25 June, but which had never been implemented.

A paradigm shift

The following day, the Trump administration made public the Guidelines of the United States National Security Strategy. As reported by the Vatican agency Fides, the section devoted to Africa states unequivocally that the United States “must seek to cooperate with selected countries.” This cooperation aims not only to “reduce conflicts”, but also to “promote mutually beneficial trade relations and move from an aid-based paradigm to one centred on investment and growth, capable of harnessing the continent’s abundant natural resources and latent economic potential.”

This strategy—mediating in conflicts in order to secure advantageous conditions for the exploitation of local resources—is one the Republican administration has repeatedly pursued, whether in Ukraine or Azerbaijan, for example. In the Congolese case, it initially appeared to have succeeded, with Trump celebrating the prospect of “doing a lot of business” there, benefiting American companies with major interests in a region exceptionally rich in minerals.

That illusion collapsed on 10 December, when the M23 disregarded the commitments made in Washington and seized Uvira, the second-largest city in South Kivu after Bukavu. As in previous offensives, the militia acted with extreme brutality against civilians, prompting local authorities to report “400 deaths and 200,000 displaced persons” forced to flee their homes in haste.

Papal anguish

Amid this renewed outbreak of violence, Pope Leo XIV, during the Angelus on Sunday 14 December, urged respect for the ceasefire signed only days earlier: “While expressing my closeness to the population, I exhort the parties to the conflict to cease all forms of violence and to seek constructive dialogue, while respecting the ongoing peace processes.”

On the same day, as reported by Radio Okapi, the Archbishop of Kinshasa, Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, addressed the closing session of the 15^th Plenary Assembly of the Association of Episcopal Conferences of Central Africa (ACECA). On that occasion, he offered a message of hope to his people, affirming that “no matter how intense the violence may be, peace remains possible.”

To achieve this, he stressed, it is essential to address the root causes of the conflict and to promote “an inclusive national dialogue” involving all stakeholders, as long advocated jointly by the Congolese Episcopal Conference and the network of evangelical churches. From this perspective, agreements such as Trump’s—driven more by commercial considerations than by humanitarian concerns—lack a solid foundation and inevitably collapse. “How can we understand that, less than a week after the ratification of the Washington agreements, Uvira was occupied?” he asked.

For the Great Lakes region

In order to move forward on a sound footing, Cardinal Ambongo also pointed to the work of the ACECA itself, an alliance of bishops from Burundi—where 40,000 refugees from Uvira have arrived in recent days and where fears are growing that the M23 offensive could spread—together with those of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda. This body promotes “peace and social development” throughout the Great Lakes region.

As Cardinal Ambongo concluded, any peace strategy that “excludes the people and normalises the plundering of their resources” is bound to fail. The future can only lie in the pursuit of “a genuine and lasting peace”, founded on “a social pact for peace and coexistence.”

See, La paz de Trump entre congoleños y ruandeses fracasa porque excluye al pueblo y su fin es comercial