PREVIEW
Trump target of progress before 9 September start of UN General Assembly is unlikely to be met
Peace talks in Doha are under pressure after the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group complained that it had not received an invitation to the talks scheduled on Friday 8 August.
‘We are not in Doha because no invitation was extended to us,’ M23 political leader Bertrand Bisimwa told reporters at a press conference in Goma, the main city in Congo-Kinshasa's North Kivu region, which M23 captured in January.
The two sides met in Washington on 31 July for the first meeting of a ‘joint oversight committee’, along with observers from the United States, African Union and Qatar.
The Doha talks, which also have the support of the US, and having been running since March, are part of a parallel mediation effort hosted by Qatar (Dispatches, 6/5/25, Ceasefire, minerals deal and troops out as peace deal takes shape). Congo-K and M23 signed a declaration of principles on 19 July in which they committed to start negotiations on a peace agreement by 8 August with a view to reaching a deal by 18 August (AC Vol 66 No 14, Trump’s peace deal hinges on minerals, militias – and megawatts).
President Donald Trump’s administration has indicated that it wants to have a peace deal or at least progress to announce ahead of the UN General Assembly that starts on 9 September. However, that timescale looks optimistic.
Both sides have complained of delays in agreeing prisoner exchanges and of breaches of ceasefire conditions. On 7 August, Bisimwa said that ‘starting from today… every attack will be met with an appropriate response’.
The 18 July declaration promised ‘respect for territorial integrity and halting hostilities’ in eastern Congo-K but included little detail on how that would be achieved and the economic commitments promised by the US.
Adding to the mutual ill-will are reports on 6 August by the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, citing firsthand accounts, that M23 killed at least 319 civilians in a series of attacks on four villages in North Kivu province in July.
‘No peace process can prosper in silence in the face of horror,’ said Congo-K government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya in response.
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