FIGHTING has flared up again in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between the M23 rebel group and government forces, a day after United States President Donald Trump hosted DRC and Rwanda leaders in Washington as they signed a peace deal aimed at ending decades-long conflict in the country.
The warring sides blamed each other for Friday’s renewed fighting, with the M23 group saying in a statement that 23 people were killed and several others wounded in bombardments by the DRC’s army.
M23 spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka said in a post on X that Congolese forces and allies launched “attacks on densely populated areas in North Kivu and South Kivu, using fighter jets, drones, and heavy artillery”.
He claimed that two bombs launched from Burundi on Thursday evening struck close to Kamanyola town, killing four people and seriously injuring two.
The Rwandan-backed group seized eastern DRC’s two largest cities, Goma and Bukavu, earlier this year and is not bound by the US peace deal.
A senior M23 official, who requested anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the media, told the Reuters news agency that rebel forces had retaken the town of Luberika and shot down a Congolese army drone.
Meanwhile, a DRC army spokesperson confirmed to Reuters that clashes were taking place along the Kaziba, Katogota and Rurambo axis in South Kivu province.
“There is population displacement in Luvungi due to Rwandan Defence Force bombardment. They are bombing blindly,” he said.
Rwanda’s army and government spokespeople were not immediately available for comment.
The renewed fighting comes a day after DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwanda’s Paul Kagame reaffirmed commitments to a US-brokered deal reached in June to stabilise the vast country and open the way for more Western mining investment.
“We’re settling a war that’s been going on for decades,” said Trump, whose administration has intervened in a string of conflicts around the world to burnish his credentials as a peacemaker and advance US business interests.
Analysts say US diplomacy paused an escalation of fighting in eastern DRC, but failed to resolve core issues, with neither the DRC nor Rwanda fulfilling pledges made in the June agreement.
Friday’s clashes also caused mass displacement of residents, as more than 700 Congolese nationals – mostly women and children – crossed into neighbouring Rwanda, Phanuel Sindayiheba, a local government official in western Rwanda’s Rusizi district, told reporters.
He said the refugees were temporarily being hosted at a transit centre in the district and provided with basic items, including food and bedding materials.
Footage shared on social media showed columns of displaced people moving towards Rwanda through the DRC-Rwanda Bugarama-Kamanyola border post — some carrying their belongings and livestock.
Between July and October, more than 123,600 people were displaced in DRC due to armed attacks, clashes, land conflicts, and natural hazards, according to the latest data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.