It has been 12 months since the foreign ministers of Rwanda and the DRC signed the 27th of June 2025 peace accord to end their three-decade-old border conflict. On the ground, shifting front lines and escalating drone strikes are causing an orgy of violence. One year on, implementation of the agreement stands at just 35 percent, according to an annual assessment by the Barometer of Peace Agreements in Africa shared with The Africa Report.
Only three of the 30 tasks outlined in the agreement have been completed, according to independent researchers from Emory, Howard and Albany State universities. Eight have seen no progress at all. Bureaucratic tasks, like the establishment of a Joint Security Coordination Mechanism, have seen the most movement. Over the past 12 months, rebel progress in South Kivu and escalating drone warfare have killed thousands, while 3.6 million eastern Congolese remain internally displaced.
A Deal Repeatedly Violated
Despite the December 2025 signing, M23 captured the last major settlement in South Kivu on 10 December, prompting the DRC and Burundi to call on the US to sanction Rwanda for non-implementation. Rwanda, in turn, accused Congolese and Burundian forces of violating the ceasefire. The US Treasury sanctioned the Rwandan military and four commanders on the 2nd of March, demanding “the immediate withdrawal of Rwanda Defence Force troops, weapons, and equipment” from the DRC, followed by sanctions on a Rwandan gold processing network on the 25th of June.
The Minerals Question
Critics have consistently flagged the deal’s commercial dimensions. The Trump administration’s interest in eastern Congo is inseparable from America’s appetite for the region’s copper and cobalt reserves, with the DRC sending Washington a list of state mining assets for potential US investment in January. Congolese lawyers filed a constitutional challenge against the related US-DRC Strategic Partnership Agreement in January, arguing it grants Washington preferential mineral access while giving it a direct role overseeing Congo’s mining sector. “Promises of peace and security remain hollow with Rwanda and M23 still occupying large swaths of land in mineral-rich eastern DRC,” said Oakland Institute director Anuradha Mittal.
Civilians Left Out
Estimates suggest dozens of women and girls are raped every day in eastern DRC, with justice mechanisms largely non-functional and survivor support services losing funding. Civil society groups, especially women’s organizations and displaced communities, have had little voice in shaping or overseeing the agreement.
A year after the Washington handshakes, the situation on the ground remains largely unchanged: armed groups still hold territory, millions remain displaced, and the peace process is, by the most generous independent measure, just over a third complete.
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