QATARI Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has visited the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), days after the government and the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group signed a framework agreement for a peace deal aimed at ending fighting in the country’s east.
On his first trip to the African country, the Qatari leader was welcomed in the capital Kinshasa on Friday by DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and other officials.
The frameworkd agreement was the latest in a series of documents signed in recent months as part of efforts, backed by the United States and Qatar, to end decades of fighting in eastern DRC that has been an enduring threat to regional stability.
The framework was described by the US and Qatari officials as an important step towards peace, but one of many that lie ahead.
Sheikh Tamim arrived in the DRC a day after visiting Rwanda, where he met President Paul Kagame.
Rwanda has long denied allegations that it has helped M23, which has seized more territory in the DRC than it has ever previously held.
Al Jazeera’s Mohamed Vall, reporting from Kinshasa, said the emir wrapped his brief state visit to the country after meeting the Congolese president at the airport and then at the presidential palace.
Vall said that Qatar signed a number of protocols on economic and political cooperation with the DRC.
He also said, “The emir of Qatar has made his first stop in Kigali overnight, before he arrived here this morning, and the understanding is that that’s a symbolic move to link the two capitals and show that there is no alternative to rapprochement between the two countries.”
Qatar’s acting charge d’affaires in the capital Kinshasa, Shafi bin Newaimi al-Hajri, said Sheikh Tamim’s visit to the DRC was of special importance for bilateral relations.
Al-Hajri said diplomatic ties between the sides expanded in recent years, noting that a DRC embassy was opened in Doha in 2022 and Qatar opened its mission in Kinshasa in May 2025.
Al-Hajri also stressed that Qatar’s mediation efforts aimed at stabilising eastern DRC played a key role in strengthening dialogue between the two governments.
In eastern DRC, violence has continued despite the various diplomatic processes in Washington and Doha, with Congolese authorities and M23 trading blame for violating the principles of earlier agreements and deliberately delaying talks.
And the prolonged negotiations do not address the threat from a multitude of other armed groups operating in the volatile east.
M23 seized Goma, eastern DRC’s largest city, in January and went on to make gains across North Kivu and South Kivu provinces, triggering a spiralling humanitarian crisis.
Qatar has hosted multiple rounds of direct talks between the DRC government and M23 going back to April, but they have dealt largely with preconditions and confidence-building measures.
The two sides agreed in July to a declaration of principles that left many key issues at the root of the conflict unresolved, and in October they reached a deal on the monitoring of an eventual ceasefire.
The July deal signed in Doha followed an earlier, separate peace agreement between the Congolese and Rwandan governments made in Washington in June.
