GOMA, Congo — Congolese and Rwandan leaders are celebrating the Washington Accords for Peace and Prosperity as a historic end to decades of conflict, but in the hills around Goma and Bukavu, M23 rebels still man checkpoints, levy taxes, and run courts, according to residents and aid workers. The gap between summit rhetoric in Washington and a hard new reality in North and South Kivu is emerging as the central test of the U.S.-brokered deal, Dec. 8, 2025.
M23 rebels deepen control even as leaders declare peace
A detailed investigation by Reuters describes how M23 rebels have evolved into a de facto state, growing from roughly 5,000 fighters to about 14,000 and installing their own mayors, governors and judges across the territory they captured in eastern Congo. The group controls key mining sites such as the Rubaya coltan mine and collects customs and road taxes, entrenching an economic base that could outlast any paper cease-fire.
U.N. experts and Western diplomats say Rwanda’s army has armed and fought alongside M23 rebels, allegations Kigali denies, even as it insists its troops inside Congo are defending against Hutu extremists of the FDLR. The Washington Accords require both Congo and Rwanda to end support for non-state armed groups and to pursue the “disengagement, disarmament and conditional integration” of fighters, but M23 is not a signatory to the treaty and continues to press military advantages on the ground.
Washington Accords meet a long, bloody history.
The Washington Accords, formally signed as a peace agreement between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda in June and ceremonially ratified in the U.S. capital on Dec. 4, commit both sides to withdraw foreign troops, create a joint security mechanism and open the way for regional economic integration and U.S.-backed investment in critical minerals. The full text of the June 27 pact is published in the peace agreement released by the U.S. State Department.
The deal follows more than a decade of failed attempts to neutralise the March 23 Movement. M23 rebels first burst onto the scene in 2012, capturing Goma and forcing some 140,000 people from their homes before being beaten back by a U.N.-backed offensive and declaring defeat the following year. At the time, rebel leaders declared they would end their insurgency in 2013 and pursue political means, a pledge that now appears distant as the group runs parallel administrations across much of North Kivu.
After several quiet years, the M23 resurfaced in 2022, quickly gaining control of large parts of North Kivu and edging toward Goma once more. Thousands of civilians fled as front lines shifted, echoing earlier chaos; Al Jazeera reported in 2022 that entire communities were uprooted around Goma when the group advanced on the city. By mid-2025, conflict trackers assessed M23 as the most powerful non-state armed actor in eastern Congo.
Rights groups say the human toll has mounted alongside those gains. Human Rights Watch documented killings and rapes by Rwanda-backed M23 rebels in and around Kishishe in 2023, alleging that civilians were executed, women were assaulted, and villages were emptied in areas newly seized by the group. U.N. reporting since has linked M23 units and allied forces to further grave abuses, including indiscriminate rocket and missile strikes near displacement camps in 2024.
M23 rebels and Washington Accords move on separate tracks
Even as the Washington Accords were finalised, Qatar hosted separate talks between Kinshasa and M23 that produced only a framework and missed multiple deadlines for a comprehensive rebel-government agreement. Analysts note that M23 leaders have repeatedly signalled that any arrangement negotiated without them “does not concern” the movement, raising the risk that a state-to-state pact will leave the group’s parallel structures intact.
Regional diplomacy has produced sharp public contrasts. In Washington, Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe told Reuters that “peace is a process… There is a kind of stability on positions. There’s no more territory expansion,” while crediting U.S. economic incentives for bringing parties to the table. At the same time, Congolese government spokesman Patrick Muyaya insisted “peace for us means withdrawal of Rwandan troops” and an end to any support for M23, underscoring how differently Kigali and Kinshasa read the same agreement.
On the ground, however, fighting has continued around strategic axes in South Kivu and near the Rwandan and Burundian borders, with the Congolese army and Rwanda-backed M23 rebels trading blame for cease-fire violations just days before and after the signing ceremony. Aid agencies say more than seven million people are now internally displaced nationwide, many sheltering in makeshift camps where outbreaks of cholera, measles and other diseases have spread as health workers struggle to reach areas under rebel or frontline control.
Civil society groups in Goma and Bukavu warn that unless the Washington Accords are matched by verifiable changes in areas governed by M23 rebels, the deal risks becoming another elite bargain that secures access to minerals without restoring state authority or accountability for war crimes. For now, the question hanging over eastern Congo is whether leaders’ promises in Washington can reach villages where the only visible government is carried out in the name of M23 rebels.
