DRC and Rwanda sign a new agreement with the UNHCR despite Rwanda’s tougher stance

SOS Médias Burundi

Goma, July 25, 2025 – The Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda signed an important agreement on Thursday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on the principles of voluntary repatriation of refugees, under the mediation of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). This gesture comes despite ongoing disagreements between these two sister nations in the Great Lakes region over the management of the security crisis in eastern Congo.

This agreement, signed by the Congolese Deputy Prime Minister for the Interior, Jacquemain Shabani, and General Charles Karamba, Rwanda’s Plenipotentiary Ambassador to the DRC, follows two days of intense talks between experts from both countries. In a regional context marked by the rise of the M23 armed group, which has controlled several capitals and mineral-rich areas in the provinces of North and South Kivu since early 2025, this agreement aims to create an environment conducive to voluntary returns.

More than 80,000 Congolese refugees, mainly from eastern DRC, are hosted in Rwanda, some for several decades. According to sources from SOS Médias Burundi, several refugees from the Mahama camp have recently made spontaneous returns to areas under M23 control, without respecting UNHCR or Rwandan authorities’ protocols, which is causing concern for the authorities.

Kinshasa and UN experts accuse Rwanda of militarily supporting the M23, claiming that Kigali has deployed approximately 4,000 soldiers on the Congolese soil to support the rebels. The Rwandan government denies these accusations, blaming the Congolese authorities, whom it accuses of supporting the Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a genocidal armed group. President Félix Tshisekedi, however, downplayed the threat posed by the FDLR, calling them “a residual force that no longer represents any danger to Rwanda.”

In their joint statement, the DRC and Rwanda reiterated their commitment to continuing bilateral cooperation on the refugee issue, while welcoming the progress in the diplomatic processes in Washington (between Kinshasa and Kigali) and Doha (between the Congolese government, the M23, and the Congo River Alliance, a politico-military movement to which the M23 is affiliated).