Update from Congo: April 25 2025
A declaration for peace signed by Rwanda and DRC, updates on sanctions, M23 movement, and words from Congo Peace School students
It's not hyperbole to say your support for the Congolese people via your partnership with Action Kivu is saving lives - paying the staff in Congo and sending funding for food is staving off the starvation that is rampant in the midst of the war. After the news updates, read on; we spoke to some of the girls at the Congo Peace School following the attacks in March on local houses, including the student who was taken from her home and by defending a neighbor, saved his life. (Read that story below, and highlights from our conversation.)
Updates and links to the most recent news from Congo:
The U.S. State Department hosted DRC and Rwanda for a peace initiative today, after Qatar hosted talks that led to an agreement for a truce. Read the Declaration of Principles from the U.S. State Department here.
The two parties agreed to a May 2 deadline for the peace deal: Read here.
On Wednesday, an agreement to halt fighting had reportedly been brokered between Congo (DRC) and the Congo River Alliance, representing several militias including Rwandan-backed M23. Read here.
One thing we can do is put pressure on our representatives that all parties adhere to the agreement established, and that they hold actors to account for any violations of the agreement. After 30 years of fighting, we do not expect to see an immediate end to the reach for control over the mineral-rich land, and need to continue to apply international pressure to the actors involved to ensure peace for the people.
The EU issued sanctions on March 17, and Rwanda and Belgium severed diplomatic ties. Read here.
Reports from colleagues in eastern Congo describe how M23 is not advancing to take more territory, due to the lessening of logistical support from Rwanda, and lack of pay or access to food. (International pressure is working.)
However, that tenuous hold of power means even more chaos for the civilians trying to survive. Banks remain closed, and people’s livelihoods have disappeared. People are starving.
Action Kivu has found a workaround and is paying the school staff and providing meals for the Congo Peace School student body, as well as sending emergency funding to provide food for the most in-need families in the community.
Our staff in Congo shared that it’s very challenging for so many organizations in eastern Congo to provide for their workers right now, and thus for the workers to take care of themselves and their families during these moments in which everyone is caught in overlapping vulnerabilities including danger of travel, starvation,and the destruction or total absence of livelihoods. The staff said: “We have continued experiencing the solidarity from Action Kivu’s supporters and partners which enables us to survive, not only us but also our families and the entire Congo Peace School community.”
Thus far, with the daily limits for mobile banking, we have been able to pay the staff salaries, send the money for the month’s meals for the 600+ student body to eat daily, as well as send emergency funds. The team reports that a small portion of that funding was used to buy whistles and noisemakers for the community to alert one another to an armed attack, and thus far, a total of 34 families are receiving food items that allow them to eat for almost three weeks.With your gift of $120, the most vulnerable families (those with a large number of children, with pregnant women) receive rice, beans, oil, salt, sugar, and a bar of soap.
The Congo Peace School remains open, though for safety reasons, the students leave campus immediately after classes are over, and are not able to make the most of the school’s resources, a library stocked with books via our friends at Books for Congo, a computer lab with connection to the internet, the basketball court, the soccer field, and the beautiful green spaces to play and relax. When asked what message they want to share with the world, they say they simply want peace.
With its safety protocols so strong, the school was selected to be the official location for the local 6th grade elementary national exam at the end of the school year, to graduate students into secondary school.
Erik Prince reaches deal for U.S. / DRC critical minerals agreement. (Read here.)
Rwanda says it is in talks with U.S. on possible minerals deal. (Read here.)
::Update from the students at the Congo Peace School::
After we learned the following attacks on community members had happened, we scheduled a Zoom to speak to some of the students, to give them a platform to share their experiences with you, the supporters of the Congo Peace School.
Over the night of March 12-13 the community near the school was attacked by armed people who have not yet been identified. They went through different households using guns to fire rounds to terrify people then force open doors and break into homes. The attackers could be any of the following: uncontrolled M23 soldiers (M23 members who have broken away from a commander), remnants of FARDC (Congo's national army) soldiers who could be hiding in the jungles near the community, or armed criminals who escaped during the Bukavu prison break that happened when the M23 took control of the city of Bukavu. A few weeks ago, uncontrolled M23 soldiers were caught by local community members in Bukavu and M23 authorities recognized they were their troops, but were no longer obeying orders by M23 commanders.
The attackers were forcing people to give them money and taking anything of worth. More than 10 families were attacked. As the community learned about the attacks via mobile phone messages, they called the closest M23 positions that are stationed in Nyangezi, south of Mumosho at 4 km, but M23 did not send any support to end the attacks. (As the M23 is now in control, there is no local police force to call for help, only M23.) Every house they looted they stole the families' cell phones and took young people with them so that no one could alert their neighbors.
The group of attackers broke into the home of a senior at the Congo Peace School, the proud captain of the school's girls' basketball team. The perpetrators took her from her family after looting some money and other objects of value, and held her captive from 8:30pm to 1am, forcing her to move with them as they attacked each next home. She was not raped, a common weapon of war in Congo. She is aware of the stigma of reporting rape but is not afraid to speak up. In fact, we learned that when the attackers were about to shoot a neighbor for having no money, she spoke up and defended him, saying, "I know him, and I know he has no work. How is he supposed to have money?" The attackers did not shoot the man.
A few weeks after that attack, the basketball captain and several of her classmates joined us for a Zoom conversation.
I asked how their daily lives have changed, and in addition to talking about the limited amount of time that they now spend at the school, one girl noted: “We are living in a battlefield. Nyangezi, where some of our classmates come from, is where the fight, the actual fighting, is happening. We are affected by what is going on directly.”
I asked how they define a good leader, and the basketball captain responded: “How do you want us to define leaders where we have no leaders, we no longer have models, we no longer have people taking the situation in charge. I was kidnapped from my home not far from the Catholic Church, and everyone in the community was alerted. They tried to call the so-called leaders, but no one came to my rescue or to help the others being attacked.
“So we have no definition of a leader right now, because the people who were leaders are supposed to be in charge, but they are not in charge. The M23 are not in charge because they were called and did not come for our rescue. So we are worried.”
I asked her about that trauma, and if she has been able to speak to the school counselor about it. She replied, “Yes, and my classmates and some of the teachers came to see me to support me.”
Asking again what they want to share to those of us outside Congo, one of the girls pulled the laptop toward her and looked directly at the screen, quoting the 6th Kingian Principle of Nonviolence that they study, the universe is on the side of justice. “But what is justice for us?” she asked. “We want the world to work for justice in Congo.”
NEXT STEPS:
TAKE ACTION: Sign the Amnesty Petition to ask the NBA: HELP STOP RISING VIOLENCE IN THE DRC. Click HERE, and share.
CALL your representatives and voice support for the Congolese people, that they hold to account any party that violates the peace agreement and that any critical minerals agreement will center Congolese citizens’ human rights.
DONATE: Invest in the people of Congo through emergency aid and long-term peace-building projects.
Thank you for your partnership in this life-saving and world-changing work.