A coalition of Congolese civil society leaders has issued an urgent appeal to preserve Congolese sovereignty and to reject the hasty and ill-conceived peace accord and business deal between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda, developed under the direction of the Trump administration in the United States. The peace accord and business deal is scheduled to be signed by the foreign ministers of DRC and Rwanda in Washington DC on 27 June 2025.
In their “Urgent Appeal”, the Coalition concludes that: “this secret agreement, which has not been shared with the Congolese people, will end up diminishing the sovereignty of the DRC over its own lands, resources, governance, economy and military,” and anticipates that: “it will provide a framework to normalize the current illicit resource and power grabs underway by Rwanda, the M23, the AFC and their other allies…”.
The coalition of 80 Congolese non-governmental organizations and public interest attorneys, called Mobilization for the Safeguarding of Congolese Sovereignty and Autonomy (using the French acronym, MOSSAC), consists primarily of organizations based in the provincial capitals of Goma and Bukavu, currently under the M23-Rwandan occupation.
The Coalition’s “Urgent Appeal” criticizes the deal as described on the U.S. State Department’s website on 18 June 2025, saying it contains four dangerous provisions:
1. Disarmament and Conditional Integration of Non-State Armed Groups, which they say will further disrupt the army’s ability to maintain security ;
2. Establishment of a joint security coordination mechanism, which they say will allow Rwandan forces to remain and operate in the DRC, thus violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the DRC;
3. A framework for regional economic integration, which they say rewards Rwanda for its armed invasion and occupation of the region by providing it with the resources it sought to appropriate during years of armed conflict; and
4. Facilitating the return of refugees and internally displaced persons, saying that because the land, homes, and resources left behind by displaced persons have been taken over by other neighbors or by parties to the conflict, it is impossible to provide for the realistic reintegration of returnees given the total lack of democratic participation of local communities in the development of this agreement.
The MOSSAC Coalition urgently demands the following three conditions before any Agreement is signed by the DRC:
(1) Full transparency of the text that has been drafted and the process by which it was drafted. The Congolese people must see this draft document and know how and by whom it was developed.
(2) Democratic participation in the preparation of a genuine peace agreement by the Congolese people or by their elected representatives at the national and provincial levels.
(3) A peace mechanism that incorporates binding procedures to establish accountability for systematic abuses against civilians, including massacres, sexual violence, and forced displacement.
As stated in MOSSAC’s previous “Declaration of Concerns” about the peace process, they conclude that this secret agreement, which has not been shared with the Congolese people, will end up diminishing the sovereignty of the DRC over its own lands, resources, governance, economy and military. Based on the summary of the deal as published on the U.S. State Department’s website on 18 June 2025, they anticipate that it will provide a framework to normalize the current illicit resource and power grabs underway by Rwanda, the M23, the AFC and their other allies, including Western powers that covet the DRC’s minerals and support Rwanda with financial aid.
MOSSAC stresses that this is an existential crisis for the DRC, and must be responded to as such.
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ATTACHMENTS (ENGLISH)
URGENT APPEAL – Don’t give up the sovereignty of the DRC – 23 June 2025