The Togolese capital hosted a strategic meeting on 7 and 8 June 2026, focused on the crisis in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Around the table sat representatives from the main regional mediation frameworks: 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 objective was to evaluate the consistency of diplomatic tracks and measure how far the warring parties remain from a lasting settlement.
Lomé, a hub for fragmented mediation
The choice of Togo as a rallying point was no coincidence. Faure Gnassingbé, appointed AU facilitator for the Congolese dossier, has spent months trying to unify parallel initiatives that have multiplied without always converging. The Nairobi process, led by the EAC, and the Luanda process, conducted under AU auspices and long spearheaded by Angola’s João Lourenço, moved forward in scattered order. The gradual merging of these tracks, begun in 2024, has yet to yield the expected results on the ground.
Diplomats in Lomé acknowledged that coordination remains the Achilles’ heel of the peace effort. Several speakers stressed the need to streamline dialogue channels to prevent the protagonists from playing one mediation against another. This fragmentation has long benefited armed actors, first and foremost the March 23 Movement (M23), whose military advances in North Kivu and South Kivu have redrawn the region’s security map.
A tense timetable between Kinshasa, Kigali and the M23
The diplomatic progress mentioned during the Togolese meeting remains modest compared to expectations. Direct talks between Kinshasa and the M23, long rejected by Congolese authorities, finally began under combined pressure from regional mediators and international partners. Meanwhile, the bilateral track 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 previous 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.
A war economy complicating the exit from crisis
Beyond the political dimension, participants highlighted the urgency of tackling illicit mining resource exploitation networks in Kivu. Coltan, tin, gold and tungsten feed a war economy whose ramifications extend to international supply chains. Several mediators advocate for a regional traceability mechanism, considered an essential condition for any sustainable de-escalation.
The Lomé meeting did not result in spectacular announcements, but it reaffirmed the principle of an integrated approach. Next steps should involve Congolese civil society actors more closely, long sidelined from processes dominated by heads of state and chancelleries. Civil society from North Kivu and South Kivu, along with customary authorities, are now identified as essential relays for anchoring any potential agreement in the realities of devastated territories.
Still, mediators left the Togolese capital without a firm timetable for signing a comprehensive agreement. The coming weeks will tell whether the diplomatic momentum launched in Lomé can shift the trajectory of a conflict that, for more than three decades, has defied all peace architectures built around the Great Lakes.
