The rebels seized Goma, the largest city in the eastern DRC, and currently possess the largest share of territory since the formation of the group. U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk warned that the worst may be yet to come, with a risk of an all-out regional war breaking out once again.

The offensive reignited a simmering conflict that has seen several flare-ups over the past two decades. Rwanda, one of the most prosperous countries in sub-Saharan Africa, has sought to carve out a sphere of influence in the eastern DRC. Despite being just one-nineteenth the size of the DRC, the Massachusetts-sized country has been able to exert its influence over its eastern regions due to the dysfunction of the DRC’s government.

The conflict has its roots in the Rwandan genocide and the bloodiest war of the 21st century. Here’s everything you need to know about why war is breaking out in the DRC.

Background and origins

On April 6, 1994, Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana was killed by unknown perpetrators when his plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile. Over the ensuing 100 days, extremist militias of the majority Hutu ethnic group systematically slaughtered the minority Tutsis, killing anywhere from 500,000 to one million civilians. The Rwandan genocide, the worst genocide since the end of the Cold War, ended when the Rwandan Patriotic Front launched an offensive and seized control of the country.

Though popular histories usually conclude with Rwanda’s impressive rebuilding efforts under RPF leader-turned Rwandan President Paul Kagame, the genocide was only the beginning of a much larger humanitarian catastrophe. After the RPF victory, one million Hutus, including genocidaire militias and much of the army, retreated west into the DRC, then known as Zaire.

Zaire was then ruled by Mobutu Sese Seko, who ruled from 1971 to 1997. Described by Time as the “archetypal African dictator,” Mobutu was infamous for being among the most corrupt leaders of the 20th century, thoroughly looting state funds to support his lavish lifestyle and that of his supporters. His opposition to communism earned him the support of several Western countries, including the United States.

Mobutu welcomed the Hutus with open arms, allowing them to establish armed camps in the east, which were used to stage attacks against Rwanda. In October 1996, Zairian authorities in the eastern South Kivu province issued an order calling for the expulsion of all Tutsis living in the province within a week on penalty of death. The order triggered what was to become the first Congo War.

Rwanda, Uganda, and Angola began backing the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the liberation of Congo under Laurent-Desire Kabila, who launched an uprising the same month as the expulsion order.

In conjunction with the uprising, the Rwandan Defense Force invaded eastern Zaire, with the immediate goal of dismantling the genocidaire camps. The Zaire military, hollowed out by corruption, quickly collapsed amid the combined advance of the rebel alliance. Mobutu fled the country in May 1997, and Kabila took power.

Africa’s World War

The newfound peace didn’t last long. Kabila was unprepared to rule the renamed DRC, with corruption from Mobutu having thoroughly hollowed out the country. While needing Rwandan and Ugandan support to remain in power, the support became a double-edged sword, as the foreign presence quickly became unpopular. 

Fearing the growing perception that he was a foreign puppet, Kabila began purging his increasingly authoritarian government of Tutsis, ordered the expulsion of Rwandan troops, and began allowing Hutu militant groups to organize along the border with Rwanda.

The Second Congo War, known also as Africa’s World War, began on Aug. 4, 1998, with one of the most audacious military operations in modern history, Operation Kitona, described by a U.S. military officer as “an odyssey fit for a Hollywood script.”

Lacking a proper airforce, Rwandan forces and their allies seized Goma’s airport in the east, hijacking two Boeing 727s and two Boeing 707s. The pilots, at gunpoint, proceeded to fly 1,200 miles to Kitona air base, the DRC’s westernmost military air base. The Rwandan-led forces quickly seized the DRC’s narrow coastline, ports, and infrastructure, cutting off the capital Kinshasa’s power. The fall of Kinshasa was only averted by the massive intervention of Zimbabwe and Angola, though the Rwandan-led force was able to seize another airport and evacuate.

Deprived of a swift victory, Rwandan-led forces shifted attention to the eastern DRC. The Second Congo War would draw in nine different countries and go on for five years. By some estimates, it would go on to become the single bloodiest war since World War II, with anywhere from three million to 5.4 million deaths.

The conflict further devastated the already fragile DRC. Human rights abuses on all sides were rife, including mass rape, looting, massacres, slavery, and the enlistment of child soldiers. A child soldier recruited by Kabila’s forces would go on to assassinate him on Jan. 16, 2001. He was succeeded by his son, Joseph Kabila.

The war also saw the systematic murder of roughly 60,000 Pygmys in the eastern DRC, roughly 40% of their population, an atrocity considered a genocide by many human rights groups.

The war concluded in July 2003, with foreign forces agreeing to withdraw in return for the dismemberment of Hutu militias and the DRC’s transition into a multiparty democratic state.

Post-war years and M23 uprising

Despite agreeing to withdraw as part of the peace agreement to end the Second Congo War, the RDF has repeatedly intervened in eastern DRC on several occasions since 2003, usually under the pretext of fighting Hutu militias. Its main involvement has been backing local rebel groups, the most significant being the March 23 movement.

One of the largest conflict outgrowths of the Second Congo War was the Kivu conflict, which saw dozens of armed groups fight over the mineral-rich North Kivu and South Kivu provinces, many backed by foreign governments. One of these armed groups was the National Congress for the Defence of the People, or CNDP, which fought against the DRC government until a peace treaty was signed on March 23, 2009. The CNDP was integrated into the DRC military and became a recognized political party.

In April 2012, hundreds of former CNDP fighters defected, arguing that the DRC government failed to uphold the March 23 agreement, which would become their new group’s name. M23 quickly distinguished itself as a far more potent force than the dozens of militias in South Kivu province, prompting thousands of defections from the Armed Forces of the DRC, or FARDC. Goma, the province’s capital, was seized in November, the most notable advance by a rebel group since the conclusion of the Second Congo War.

From the beginning, suspicions arose that the group was so effective due to Rwandan backing, something fervently denied by Kigali. However, an internal U.N. report viewed by the BBC cited extensive evidence of deep Rwandan involvement. Some soldiers who had defected claimed the RDF had begun training them as early as February 2012, then sent them over the border to fight with the rebel group, many of whom were Tutsi.

The U.S., other Western countries, and other African countries began putting pressure on Kagame to stop his support of the rebel group. Kigali soon caved, signing a peace treaty with the DRC. M23 was soon defeated by a FARDC and U.N. offensive, leading to its retreat into Uganda and Rwanda and surrender in late 2013.

2022 offensive and current hostilities

Relations between Kigali and the DRC’s leaders have seen highs and lows since the conclusion of the first M23 rebellion. In 2019 and 2020, DRC President Felix Tshisekedi gave Rwanda the green light to launch an incursion into the eastern DRC to combat the Hutu extremist Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR.

The honeymoon didn’t last long, however, with Kigali soon claiming that the DRC wasn’t doing enough to combat the FDLR, and criticizing its treatment of Tutsis. Rwanda’s rising prestige, parallel to the growing dysfunction of the DRC, would also play a role in the renewed hostilities, with the mineral-rich North Kivu and South Kivu provinces presenting a tempting target.

In 2017, a few hundred M23 militants crossed the border from Uganda into the DRC where they began a low-level insurgency. This escalated in March 2022, when a renewed M23 began launching direct assaults on FARDC and U.N. positions. The group once again claimed that the DRC wasn’t holding true to the previous peace agreement and alleged persecution against Congolese Tutsis.

The DRC and U.N. were quick to link the sudden potency of the force to renewed Rwandan involvement, which Kigali denied once again. However, this time around Rwanda’s involvement steadily expanded to blend the lines between support and an outright intervention.

A December 2024 U.N. report alleged that M23 had become a de facto extension of the RDF. The report argued that roughly 4,000 regular RDF troops were operating alongside M23, sometimes fighting FARDC forces alongside them. M23 itself now resembles a conventional army, with uniforms, modern equipment, and advanced tactics rather than the ragtag militia group it once was.

Most directly, the RDF had “de facto control” over M23 command, and “Every M23 unit was supervised and supported by RDF special forces.”

The report also gave some credence to Kigali’s fears, however, finding that the FARDC “continued to systematically rely on and cooperate with” the FDLR and other armed radical groups.

One documented case that tanked relations between Rwanda and the DRC was when orders from FARDC General Dieugentil Nzambe were leaked, where he ordered soldiers to suspend operations against the FDLR and restore relations with “all friendly units.”

After major hostilities began in 2022, regional groups such as the African Union and East African Community began peace initiatives. While seeing intermittent progress, the personal animosity between Kagame and Tshisekedi and irreconcilable goals led to repeated gridlock. In a December 2023 speech, Tshisekedi compared Kagame to German dictator Adolf Hitler and suggested that the Rwandan president would kill himself. A Kigali spokesman decried the remarks as “a loud and clear threat.”

M23’s conquests also put it in control of mineral-rich areas that served as a major economic boon for Kigali. The U.N. report found that 150 tons of coltan, a vital resource used in smartphones and other electronics, were “fraudulently exported to Rwanda and mixed with Rwandan production.” The DRC estimates that Kigali is earning $1 billion in annual revenue from the smuggled metals, a massive amount for a country with a $13.3 billion GDP.

In tandem with the sputtering peace talks was a changing geopolitical calculus from Kigali. With the world increasingly distracted by wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, as well as the diplomatic upheaval brought by the change of government in Washington, Kagame may have seen his chance.

Ben Shepherd, a consulting fellow at the United Kingdom think tank Chatham House, told the Financial Times that Kagame could have assessed that obtaining Congolese minerals is worth the risk of dwindling international aid.

“Maybe this is Kagame reading the room accurately,” he said. “Getting in there early and creating facts on the ground — regardless of costs to Congolese civilians and regional stability.”

Despite the controversy around its operations in the DRC, Rwanda remains one of the most popular sub-Saharan African countries, its international standing buoyed by its pro-Western stance and impressive growth. From 2000 to 2020, Rwanda grew at over 7% annually, adding a year of life expectancy every year.

In January 2025, M23 launched a lightning offensive against the capital of North Kivu province, Goma, with a population of nearly two million. The FARDC and U.N. forces were quickly routed, with their commanders abandoning their troops. Pictures and videos of the city in the aftermath showed massive quantities of abandoned uniforms, equipment, weapons, and vehicles. Thousands were killed in the offensive.

The capture of Goma marks the biggest escalation of the conflict since the conclusion of the Second Congo War over two decades prior. The renewed hostilities have revived memories of the bloody conflict, and observers have warned of an expansion into a regional war — Uganda, Burundi, and South Africa all have troops in the region.

The capture of Goma led to riots in Kinshasa, attacks against embassies, and calls for mobilization. The government called the capture of Goma a declaration of war and refused even to enter talks with M23.

Kigali and Kinshasa have drawn lines in the sand, and regional groups appear unable to halt the fighting. M23 has vowed to continue its advance to Kinshasa to overthrow the government. Millions are already displaced, and accusations of human rights abuses are rife. With the world’s eyes elsewhere, war in the DRC could emerge as one of the biggest humanitarian crises in recent history.