The Togolese capital hosted a strategic meeting on 7 and 8 June 2026, dedicated to the crisis in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Around the table sat representatives of the main regional frameworks involved in mediation: 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). The stated goal was to assess the coherence of diplomatic tracks and gauge the distance still separating the warring parties from a lasting settlement.
Lomé, a hub for fragmented mediation
The choice of Togo as a rallying point was far from coincidental. Faure Gnassingbé, appointed AU facilitator for the Congolese dossier, has been striving for several months to unite parallel initiatives that multiplied without always converging. The Nairobi process, led by the EAC, and the Luanda process, under the aegis of the AU and long embodied by Angola’s João Lourenço, advanced in a disjointed manner. The gradual fusion of these tracks, started in 2024, has yet to yield the expected results on the ground.
Diplomats in Lomé acknowledged that coordination remains the Achilles’ heel of peace efforts. Several speakers stressed the need to streamline dialogue channels to prevent protagonists from playing one mediation against another. This fragmentation long benefited armed actors, notably the March 23 Movement (M23), whose military advances in North Kivu and South Kivu redrew the region’s security map.
A tense calendar between Kinshasa, Kigali and the M23
Diplomatic progress mentioned 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 dimension between the DRC and Rwanda, accused by the UN and several Western chancelleries of supporting the rebel movement, remains the most delicate political knot to untie.
Mediators recalled that implementation of prior commitments, notably the withdrawal of foreign forces from Congolese territory and the cantonment of armed groups, is worryingly behind schedule. 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 and identity drivers far exceed the security framework.
War economy complicates crisis resolution
Beyond the political dimension, participants stressed the urgency of tackling illicit exploitation circuits of Kivu’s mineral resources. Coltan, tin, gold and tungsten fuel a war economy whose ramifications extend to international supply chains. Several mediators advocate for a regional traceability mechanism, a condition deemed essential for any sustainable de-escalation.
The Lomé meeting did not yield spectacular announcements, but it reaffirmed the principle of an integrated approach. The next steps should more closely involve Congolese civil society actors, long sidelined from processes dominated by heads of state and chancelleries. Civil society in North Kivu and South Kivu, as well as traditional authorities, are now identified as indispensable relays to anchor any potential agreement in the reality of battered territories.
Still, the mediators left the Togolese capital without a firm timeline for signing a comprehensive agreement. The coming weeks will tell whether the diplomatic momentum sparked in Lomé can shift the trajectory of a conflict that, for over three decades, has defied all peace architectures built around the Great Lakes.
