Great Lakes strife calls for no bias

US partiality towards one party risks subverting mediator role in Washington Process

- Albert Rudatsimburwa

Diplomacy: Rwandan President Paul Kagame, President Donald Trump and DRC President Felix Tshisekedi. Photo: The White House

(The White House)

The US has invested rare presidential-level capital in the Great Lakes Region. President Donald Trump's engagement, culminating in the Washington Accords for Peace and Prosperity, has elevated diplomacy when escalation could have tipped the region into a wider war.

That leadership deserves recognition. The Accords offer a credible framework to end cycles of violence between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda, normalise relations and anchor peace in shared economic interests. Yet for mediation to succeed, perception matters as much as text.

With the recent fall of Uvira in South Kivu to the AFC/M23 movement, the US diplomacy has chosen to single out one party — Rwanda — while underplaying the responsibilities of the DRC with its coalition of armed groups and its military ally, Burundi. Burundi has been seen as a spoiler, creating the conditions under which Uvira fell - not as an isolated battlefield event but as the culmination of months of provocation and blockade.

During 2025, the Burundian National Defence Force (FDNB), with more than 20 000 troops in South Kivu, contributed to the collapse of the security situation around Uvira and its capture by AFC/M23.

Major Burundi-Congo offensives appeared to have been planned to coincide with moments of diplomatic breakthrough, including on the day the Washington Accords were signed.