Regional mediators gather in Lomé to assess DRC peace efforts
On 7–8 June 2026, Lomé, the capital of Togo, became the venue for a strategic meeting focused on the crisis in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Around the table sat representatives of the main regional mediation frameworks: the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the East African Community (EAC), the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), joined by envoys from the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN). Their stated objective was to evaluate the coherence of diplomatic initiatives and gauge how far the warring parties remain from a lasting settlement.
Lomé as hub for a fragmented mediation
The choice of Togo as the gathering point was no accident. Faure Gnassingbé, designated AU facilitator for the Congolese dossier, has been working for months to unite parallel initiatives that have multiplied without always converging. The Nairobi process, led by the EAC, and the Luanda process, steered under the AU umbrella and long spearheaded by Angola’s João Lourenço, have advanced in separate lanes. The gradual fusion of these tracks, begun in 2024, has yet to deliver the expected results on the ground.
Diplomats in Lomé acknowledged that coordination remains the Achilles’ heel of the peace effort. Several speakers stressed the need to streamline dialogue channels to prevent protagonists from playing one mediation against another. This fragmentation long benefited armed actors, foremost the March 23 Movement (M23), whose military advances in North Kivu and South Kivu have redrawn the region’s security map.
Timeline under pressure between Kinshasa, Kigali and the M23
The diplomatic progress reported during the Togolese meeting remains modest compared to expectations. Direct talks between Kinshasa and the M23, long refused by Congolese authorities, eventually began under combined pressure from regional mediators and international partners. Meanwhile, the bilateral track between the DRC and Rwanda—accused by the UN and several Western chancelleries of backing the rebel movement—remains the most delicate political knot to untangle.
Mediators reminded participants that implementation of prior commitments, notably the withdrawal of foreign forces from Congolese territory and the cantonment of armed groups, is facing worrying delays. The deployment of the SADC mission in the DRC (SAMIDRC), which suffered heavy human losses in early 2025, illustrated the limits of regional military responses to a conflict whose economic, land-related and identity-based drivers extend well beyond the security sphere.
War economy complicates path out of crisis
Beyond the political dimension, attendees underscored the urgency of tackling the illicit exploitation networks of Kivu’s mineral resources. Coltan, tin, gold and tungsten fuel a war economy whose ramifications reach into international supply chains. Several mediators are pushing for a regional traceability mechanism, deemed an indispensable condition for any sustainable de-escalation.
The Lomé meeting did not produce dramatic announcements, but it reaffirmed the principle of an integrated approach. Next steps are expected to involve Congolese civil society actors more closely—long sidelined in processes dominated by heads of state and chancelleries. Civil society groups from North Kivu and South Kivu, as well as traditional authorities, are now identified as essential relays for grounding any eventual agreement in the reality of battered territories.
Still, mediators left the Togolese capital without a firm timeline for signing a comprehensive accord. The coming weeks will tell whether the diplomatic momentum generated in Lomé is enough to shift the trajectory of a conflict that, for more than three decades, has defied all peace architectures built around the Great Lakes region.
