KIGALI, Rwanda – More than 700 Congolese nationals crossed into neighboring Rwanda on Friday, fleeing renewed heavy fighting between the M23 rebel group and government forces in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The sudden exodus came just 24 hours after Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame signed a high-profile U.S.-brokered peace agreement in Washington aimed at ending decades of conflict in the mineral-rich region.
Women and children formed the overwhelming majority of the new arrivals, according to Phanuel Sindayiheba, a local government official in Rwanda’s Rusizi district, which shares a porous border with South Kivu province. Speaking at the Bugarama-Kamanyola border post, Sindayiheba said the refugees were being temporarily sheltered at a transit center where they received food, clean water, medical check-ups, blankets and mattresses. Rwandan authorities are working closely with the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) to register the new arrivals and prepare for possible longer-term needs.
Videos and photographs widely shared on social media showed long lines of exhausted families walking toward Rwanda at dawn, many carrying babies on their backs and leading goats or balancing household belongings on their heads. The images captured the panic that swept through villages near Luvungi and Kamanyola when artillery fire and drone strikes began before sunrise.
Local Congolese media reported that M23 fighters launched coordinated dawn assaults on positions held by the Congolese army (FARDC) and allied militias in the same morning. Residents described intense bombardment that forced entire communities to abandon their homes within minutes.
M23 spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka claimed on X that Congolese forces and their regional allies had initiated the attacks, using fighter jets, drones and heavy artillery against civilian areas in both North and South Kivu. He further alleged that two bombs fired from Burundian territory on Thursday evening struck near Kamanyola, killing four civilians and seriously wounding two others. Burundi has not commented on the accusation.
Rwanda continues to face persistent international accusations of providing military backing to M23, charges that Kigali has repeatedly and firmly denied, insisting its troops are present only to protect Rwandan security interests against genocidaire militias such as the FDLR.
The outbreak of fighting cast an immediate shadow over the peace deal signed the previous day. On December 4, 2025, Presidents Tshisekedi and Kagame met in Washington at the newly renamed Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace to formally endorse the Washington Accords for Peace and Prosperity. U.S. President Donald Trump, who personally hosted the ceremony, declared the agreement would end “decades of violence and bloodshed” and usher in a new era of cooperation. The accords include commitments to neutralize armed groups, withdraw foreign forces, and launch joint economic projects, with the United States pledging to buy Congolese and Rwandan critical minerals to incentivize compliance.
President Kagame described the deal as containing “everything needed to end this conflict once and for all,” while President Tshisekedi called it an “irreversible commitment” to turn the page on confrontation and open an era of sustainable regional peace.
Despite the diplomatic breakthrough, many observers remain skeptical. The agreement was negotiated directly between Kinshasa and Kigali and does not bind M23, which has stated it will only lay down arms if granted amnesty and political representation. Previous peace agreements in 2002 and 2013 collapsed for similar reasons.
The humanitarian toll of the eastern Congo crisis continues to worsen. Between July and October 2025 alone, more than 123,600 people were newly displaced inside the country due to armed violence, land disputes and natural hazards, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The total number of internally displaced persons in DRC now stands at 6.3 million, with acute food insecurity affecting 27 million Congolese, including 4.5 million acutely malnourished children.
In North Kivu province, camps around Goma host nearly 600,000 people living in dire conditions prone to cholera, mpox and measles outbreaks. Aid agencies warn that funding shortfalls threaten to leave millions without basic assistance in 2026.
For the hundreds of families now huddled in Rwanda’s Rusizi transit center, the promises made in Washington feel very far away. “We only want to return home and live without fear,” one mother told reporters as she comforted her crying toddler. As darkness fell on Friday, more footsteps could still be heard approaching the border, a stark reminder that, for now, the guns have not fallen silent.
