Regional mediators assess progress on eastern DRC crisis in Lomé

The togolese capital hosted a strategic meeting on 7 and 8 june 2026, dedicated to the crisis in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Around the table sat representatives of the main regional structures involved in mediation: the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the East African Community (EAC), the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), joined by envoys from the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN). The stated objective: evaluate the coherence of diplomatic tracks and measure the distance still separating the belligerents from a lasting settlement.

Lomé, hub for a fragmented mediation effort

The choice of Togo as a rallying point is no coincidence. Faure Gnassingbé, designated AU facilitator for the congolese file, has been striving for several months to unify parallel initiatives that have multiplied without always converging. The Nairobi process, led by the EAC, and the Luanda process, conducted under the AU’s aegis and long embodied by Angola’s João Lourenço, have advanced in a scattered manner. The gradual merger of these tracks, initiated in 2024, has not yet produced the expected results on the ground.

Diplomats present in Lomé acknowledged that coordination remains the Achilles’ heel of the peace effort. Several speakers insisted on the need to streamline dialogue channels to prevent protagonists from playing one mediation against another. This dispersion has long benefited armed actors, foremost among them the March 23 Movement (M23), whose military advances in North Kivu and South Kivu have redrawn the region’s security map.

A tense timeline between Kinshasa, Kigali and the M23

The diplomatic progress mentioned during the meeting in Lomé remains modest compared to expectations. Direct talks between Kinshasa and the M23, long refused by congolese authorities, eventually began under combined pressure from regional mediators and international partners. Simultaneously, the bilateral dimension between the DRC and Rwanda—accused by the UN and several Western chancelleries of supporting the rebel movement—remains the most delicate political knot to untie.

Mediators reminded that implementation of previous commitments, notably the withdrawal of foreign forces from congolese territory and the cantonment of armed groups, is worryingly behind schedule. The deployment of the SADC mission in the DRC (SAMIDRC), which suffered heavy human losses in early 2025, has illustrated the limits of regional military responses to a conflict whose economic, land and identity drivers extend far beyond the security framework.

A war economy complicating the way out of crisis

Beyond the political dimension, participants stressed the urgency of tackling the illicit exploitation circuits of mineral resources in the Kivu region. Coltan, tin, gold and tungsten fuel a war economy whose ramifications reach international supply chains. Several mediators advocate for a regional traceability mechanism, a condition deemed essential for any sustainable de-escalation.

The Lomé meeting did not yield spectacular announcements, but it reaffirmed the principle of an integrated approach. The next steps should more closely involve congolese civil actors, long kept away from processes dominated by heads of state and chancelleries. Civil society from North Kivu and South Kivu, along with customary authorities, are now identified as indispensable relays for anchoring any eventual agreement in the reality of battered territories.

Yet mediators left the togolese capital without a fixed timeline for signing a comprehensive accord. The coming weeks will tell whether the diplomatic momentum sparked in Lomé will be enough to shift the trajectory of a conflict that, for over three decades, has defied all peace architectures built around the Great Lakes region.