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Vol 67 No 1

Published 9th January 2026


Congo-Kinshasa

Kigali stand-off continues as Copperbelt booms

The lack of enforcement mechanisms means no one is pressured to respect the US and Qatari accords

In the opening days of 2026, the latest UN experts’ report confirmed the widely held view that the war aims of the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) and its Mouvement du 23 mars (M23) militia allies are to consolidate control of a substantial sliver of eastern Congo-Kinshasa. The UN experts concluded that the M23, with support from the RDF, ‘seeks to position itself as an alternative governance authority to the Congolese state, establishing administrative, judicial, fiscal and security structures and assuming core state functions’.

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