Translated by Gaia Baraldi
Origins
For decades, one of the deadliest humanitarian crises in the world has been unfolding in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a conflict that continues to cause displacement, natural disasters, hunger, and disease outbreaks following the Second Congo War, one of the worst wars in African history.
The first Congo war took place between 1996 and 1997, triggered by the 1994 Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi and moderate Hutu ethnic minorities, which forced around 2 million people to seek refuge in Congolese refugee camps.
Among them, Hutu extremist groups emerged and clashed with Tutsi militias, the Rwandan Patriotic Front.
At the same time, in Rwanda, the RPF emerged victorious over the genocidal government, giving rise to a new Tutsi government led by President Paul Kagame, which launched an invasion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo—then known as the Republic of Zaire and ruled by the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.
This initial assault was supported by other African states, including Uganda and Angola, although Kagame's main support came from Zaire's opposition leader Laurent Kabila, who coordinated the militia invasion.
The First Congo War ended with the victory of the Kabila–Kagame coalition and Mobutu’s flight in 1997, legitimizing Kabila’s installation as president of Zaire, which in the same year was officially renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The truce lasted only a year, because as early as 1998 the Second Congolese War broke out—considered the deadliest conflict in history since World War II—triggered by the deterioration of relations between the two countries: the Congolese president denied Kagame’s role in the country’s liberation in order to silence rumors suggesting Rwandan influence over the Congolese government.
Not only that, Kabila ordered all Rwandan and foreign military troops to leave the DRC and removed the Tutsi presence from his government, instead allowing Hutu armed groups to organize on the border.
Rwanda responded swiftly in 1998 by invading the country with the aim of establishing a zone controlled by its troops in the border region between the DRC and Rwanda.
In the following years, between 2002 and 2003, Rwanda and the DRC began signing peace agreements, which, despite the presence of a United Nations peacekeeping force, failed to stop the fighting.
One of the most important armed groups to emerge in the 2000s was the March 23 Movement (M23), composed mainly of Tutsis, which in the following years became a significant presence in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
In 2013, the United Nations Security Council authorized the mandate of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) to support the Congolese army in its fight against M23.
Over the years, another point of contention has been the vast reserves of metals and minerals used in electronics found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which have led to the involvement of local and external armed groups.
It is therefore the country's mineral resources that have globalized the conflict: Chinese companies currently own most of the uranium, copper, and cobalt mines in the country, and to ensure the security of these resources, they have deployed the Congolese army to the mining sites.
Recent developments
Fighting between the Congolese Security Forces and military groups led by M23 intensified in 2025, when the latter reached Goma, the capital of the eastern North Kivu province, with Rwanda continuing to be one of the group’s main political supporters.
Kinshasa and the United Nations have accused Kigali of financing the resurgence of M23; in response, Kigali accuses Kinshasa of supporting extremist Hutu militias, including the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a group that includes some of those responsible for the Rwandan genocide.
Although the Rwandan government defines the FDLR as ‘’genocidal threat," it itself is accused by several United Nations reports of "using the conflict as a way to plunder Congolese minerals’’, accusations that Kagame has always denied.
The latest of these UN reports dates back to December 30th: given the worsening situation, the fine line between internal rebellion and external aggression seems to have become invisible, leaving instead room for a regional conflict that threatens the stability of all of Central Africa.
As experts point out, the M23 is no longer merely an internal militia, but a full-fledged force that governs the occupied regions, thereby “normalizing” the occupation.
The UN report also cites evidence of Rwandan Defense Forces (RDF) involvement in DRC in support of the M23 group, including the identification of senior officers and the use of sophisticated weaponry.
It is important to note that, instead, is that the collaboration between the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) and the FDLR is a pretext that Rwanda invokes as a casus belli to justify its interventions.
Current President of the Great Lakes Region, Félix Tshisekedi, is also using the support of the Wazalendo, Congolese patriots accused of systematic violence against civilians who cooperate with local militias, to counter the M23 attacks, thus risking further fragmentation of the country's security and that of the population.
The economic driver of the conflict remains the exploitation of the country's abundant natural resources, such as gold and coltan. The UN report traces the routes of gold, which, once extracted from mining sites controlled by armed groups, flows to Rwanda and Uganda, where it is then "laundered" and released onto international markets, especially in the Emirates.
The war is not just a clash of powers, but a more than profitable business.
Humanitarian crisis
Despite peace efforts, experts state that: “Violations of international humanitarian law are systematic,” and that “the number of internally displaced persons has reached record levels, worsening an already catastrophic humanitarian crisis.”
Burundi is the main host country, currently sheltering some 200,000 asylum-seeking refugees who have fled the conflict in the DRC; according to the UNHCR, they are living in makeshift shelters exposed to the elements and lacking sufficient food and medical care.
The humanitarian situation has deteriorated significantly, and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that approximately 14.9 million people will need healthcare in 2026, including 513,000 Congolese refugees in neighboring countries.
Between now and June, in the country considered among the poorest in the world (75% of Congolese live below the poverty line), 26.6 million people will face a hunger crisis, putting approximately 4.18 million children under the age of 5 at risk of acute malnutrition.
Furthermore, healthcare, sanitation, and clean water are also seriously threatened: the combination of natural disasters, conflict, and displacement is leading to an increase in outbreaks of diseases that would be preventable and treatable under normal hygiene conditions, such as measles, malaria, Ebola, and cholera. These outbreaks are particularly prevalent in overcrowded areas with limited access to medicines and vaccinations.
Finally, the UN report warns the entire international community that the way to end this deadly conflict is to shift the focus to the real fuel of this war: financial flows and arms flows.
The S/2025/858 report therefore marks an important turning point, arguing that to stop the decade-long crisis, ceasefires are no longer sufficient, but that it is necessary to strike at the economic engine behind them.
Mondo Internazionale APS - Riproduzione Riservata ® 2026