Mobilization for the Safeguarding of Congolese Sovereignty and Autonomy (MOSSAC)
An ad hoc coalition of 81 Congolese organizations to express our concerns regarding the occupation, and our demands for a lasting peace based on security, accountability, sovereignty, and justice.
NEWS RELEASE: Tuesday 17 February, 2026
CONTACT: Dr. Deborah S. Rogers, Coordinatrice internationale, MOSSAC
EMAIL: CoordinationMOSSAC@pm.me
Congolese NGOs criticize Washington Accords signed by DRC, Rwanda and United States; recommend steps to protect Congolese security and sovereignty
A coalition of Congolese civil society leaders has issued a detailed critique of the Washington Accords signed by the DRC, Rwanda and the United States, and has proposed a series of steps to ameliorate the negative impacts of these Accords.
“These agreements, pushed on the DRC by the Trump administration during the ongoing violent incursion, represent the results of a negotiation at gunpoint,” says one of the MOSSAC coalition’s leaders.[i]
Another leader of the MOSSAC coalition comments bitterly, “These accords take us back to the days of King Leopold, where a colonial resource grab is imposed, and might makes right.”
“We know better now, and will not tolerate it,” adds a third member of the Coordination team.
Mobilization to Safeguard Congolese Sovereignty and Autonomy (MOSSAC) is an ad hoc coalition of 81 Congolese civil society organizations formed to express their concerns about the occupation, and their demands for a lasting peace based on security, accountability, sovereignty and justice.
The Washington Accords include three public documents. The first of these agreements (signed by the DRC and Rwanda) is presented as a Peace Agreement between two equal partners, calling for a ceasefire but containing no provisions related to Rwanda’s war of aggression, or occupation of two provinces in the DRC. The second agreement (also signed by the DRC and Rwanda) creates a “Regional Economic Integration Framework” (REIF) allowing Rwanda to jointly exploit the DRC’s resources.
A third agreement is called the “Strategic Partnership Agreement”, and is signed by the DRC and the United States. This accord specifies that the DRC will provide a list of all its national coltan, copper, manganese and gold development projects that are not currently under contract, so that the United States can decide which companies to allocate them to.
MOSSAC’s primary criticisms and recommendations concerning the Washington Accords include the following:
MOSSAC asserts that neither Rwanda and its allies nor the United States can be relied on to ensure a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of armed forces and the parallel government from the occupied zone in eastern DRC. MOSSAC calls on the Congolese government to remain firm in its refusal to implement the resource exploitation provisions of the agreements until the troops are gone, and the occupied zones and mine sites have been returned to their rightful owners under a democratically elected government.
MOSSAC notes that there was no transparency, and no local government or public involvement in the development of these agreement, and thus they do not represent the needs and wishes of the Congolese people. MOSSAC calls for a nation-wide dialogue with broad participation to address a list of concerns including justice, return of lands and resources, compensation, building the loyalty of the Congolese army, and other essential steps to ensure peace, security and sovereignty in the future.
MOSSAC points out that the primary beneficiary of these agreements is the United States – not the DRC, because the agreements, especially the “Strategic Partnership Agreement”, give a large share of the decision-making about laws, policies, regulations and the distribution of minerals to committees controlled by US appointees. MOSSAC calls on the Congolese parliament to annul the government’s signature on the Strategic Partnership Agreement, given that this agreement constitutes a violation of the Congolese constitution and sovereignty.
MOSSAC expresses its assessment that these agreements represent a step backwards from the UN Security Council’s Resolution 2773, which demands unconditional withdrawal of Rwandan troops and restoration of territorial integrity and sovereignty in the eastern DRC. MOSSAC calls on the United Nations and the international community to take all steps needed to implement UNSC Resolution 2773 immediately.
MOSSAC observes that the agreements do not address issues of justice or the culpability of Rwanda in the war of aggression, invasion and occupation of eastern DRC, but instead reward Rwanda by presenting them a pathway to normalize and make legal their pillaging of Congolese land and resources. MOSSAC calls for a separate tribunal to be established to gather testimony and evidence on the actions of Rwanda and allied actors, to refer them to the ICC and the ICJ, to prosecute cases, to impose sentences reflecting the gravity of the crimes, and to require perpetrators to provide compensation to the victims of their crimes.
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[i] Coalition members have asked to remain anonymous due to threats on their life.
See full text of the document “Critique of the Washington Accords and calls for mitigation” here.