Democratic Republic of the Congo: Vote on MONUSCO Mandate Renewal*
This afternoon (19 December), the Security Council is expected to vote on a draft resolution renewing the mandate of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) for one year, until 20 December 2026.
France, the penholder on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), circulated an initial draft of the resolution on 5 December and convened three rounds of negotiations on 9, 12, and 17 December. It also organised a briefing with the UN Secretariat on 12 December to clarify issues raised during the negotiations. The draft text was put under three silence procedures over the course of this week, but China and Russia broke silence each time, apparently expressing concern about proposed changes to MONUSCO’s mandate that they viewed as complicating the work of the mission, which is operating in a complex and challenging environment. Other Council members also had comments on the draft. Eventually, the penholder placed what it considers a compromise draft text in blue on Thursday afternoon (18 December).
Background
This year’s negotiations on MONUSCO’s mandate renewal took place amid major developments on the diplomatic front to address the situation in eastern DRC, including the signing of the Washington Accords for Peace and Prosperity between the DRC and Rwanda on 4 December and the Doha Framework for Peace between the Congolese government and the Mouvement du 23 Mars (M23) on 15 November. (For more information, see our 11 December What’s in Blue story.) Despite this diplomatic activity, fighting escalated dramatically in North Kivu and South Kivu provinces in recent weeks, with the M23 capturing several areas, including its seizure on 10 December of Uvira—a strategic town on the shores of Lake Tanganyika near the Burundian capital, Bujumbura—raising fears of heightened regional tensions.
Against this backdrop, Council members discussed the situation in the DRC on 12 December, welcoming recent diplomatic achievements but also expressing disappointment that commitments made by the parties are not being respected. The US, in particular, accused Rwanda of planning and executing the war in eastern DRC by providing military and political guidance to the M23 and fighting alongside the group with roughly 5,000–7,000 troops as of early December. Diplomatic pressure from the US, which was apparently disappointed by Uvira’s capture only a few days after the signing of the Washington Accords, seems to have led the M23 to announce on 15 December the unilateral withdrawal of its forces from Uvira.
Negotiations on the Draft Resolution
The draft resolution in blue renews MONUSCO’s mandate until 20 December 2026, maintaining its current troop ceiling of 11,500 military personnel, 600 military observers, 443 police personnel, and 1,270 personnel in formed police units. The text also retains the mission’s three key priorities: protection of civilians (PoC), support for disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR), and assistance with security sector reform (SSR). This year, the penholder streamlined the language and introduced substantive changes to reflect the latest political and security developments in eastern DRC.
The negotiations were very contentious. Council members apparently held divergent views on a range of issues, with several iterations of the draft needed to reflect input from Council members. Initially, China and Russia had proposed a technical rollover of the mandate and requested a report from the Secretary-General to help the Council make an informed decision about the mission’s mandate. Although the suggestion for a technical rollover was not taken on board, some language was added on reporting from the Secretary-General to the draft resolution in blue. It seems that China and Russia broke silence three times to request that their concerns be addressed in the draft text.
It appears that one major area of contention was language relating to MONUSCO’s support to the ongoing peace processes. In the initial draft text, the penholder apparently included ceasefire verification and monitoring as a new priority task for the mission. It seems that China and Russia opposed this provision, arguing that MONUSCO should not be perceived as subordinated to any external process or national interest, an apparent reference to the Washington and Doha processes. The US, for its part, insisted on retaining the mission’s support to the ongoing peace processes and ceasefire monitoring as a priority task. It seems that the US maintained that the mission’s mandated tasks should be implemented consistent with the Washington and Doha processes, a reference which was removed upon the request of China and Russia.
In an apparent compromise, the penholder removed ceasefire verification and monitoring from the mission’s priority tasks. Instead, it added, in an existing operational section that dealt with peace processes, a provision authorising MONUSCO to support the implementation of a permanent ceasefire in line with resolution 2773 of 21 February. This was apparently consistent with preferences expressed by a majority of Council members.
Changes were also made in response to the perception that the draft text’s language on MONUSCO’s support for the ongoing peace processes could shift focus away from the role of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Great Lakes Region in supporting such processes. To address this concern, China proposed language calling for the office of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Great Lakes Region to continue providing political and technical support to the ongoing peace processes, including by working closely with the African Union (AU), which was added to the draft text in blue.
The penholder also accommodated China and Russia by including in the draft resolution in blue language which requests the Secretary-General to provide, by 1 March 2026, an assessment of progress towards establishing the Ceasefire Oversight and Verification Mechanism agreed within the framework of the Doha process. It also requests the Secretary-General to provide proposals on the scope of MONUSCO’s engagement to support the implementation of a permanent ceasefire, with a particular focus on hotspot areas in North Kivu and South Kivu. Furthermore, the draft text in blue expresses the Council’s intention to consider further changes to MONUSCO’s mandate in a later resolution, taking into account the Secretary-General’s proposals and the evolving security situation on the ground.
Even though the Africa-led mediation process appears to have been overshadowed by the Washington and Doha processes, the “A3 Plus” grouping (Algeria, Sierra Leone, Somalia, and Guyana) sought to bring visibility to it during the negotiations. At these members’ request, language was added to the draft resolution in blue highlighting Togo’s leadership as the African mediator and the facilitators appointed by the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), as well as the role of regional mechanisms under the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) involved in ceasefire verification and monitoring.
It appears that the US proposed exempting the M23 from MONUSCO’s PoC mandate to neutralise armed groups through targeted offensive operations, if the group remains engaged in good faith in current peace processes and implements its commitments under the Doha process. This was apparently controversial during the negotiations, particularly in light of the M23’s capture of Uvira. The draft text in blue authorises MONUSCO to support the implementation of the ceasefire and the Doha Framework in liaison with the parties, without providing an exception for the M23 in MONUSCO’s PoC mandate.
Additionally, it seems that Council members were concerned about the situation of MONUSCO peacekeepers operating in M23-controlled areas, who have faced challenges in carrying out their mandated tasks due to several restrictions imposed by the group since January. This resulted in new language in the draft resolution in blue calling for the immediate lifting of any constraints against MONUSCO’s freedom of movement and deliberate obstruction to the implementation of MONUSCO’s mandate. At the apparent request of China and Russia, the draft text in blue also contains language requesting the Secretary-General to provide information, as part of his quarterly reports on MONUSCO, on the mission’s activities and mandate implementation in areas occupied by the M23 in North Kivu, as well as lessons learned since January and related recommendations.
The draft text in blue strongly condemns the M23’s offensive in South Kivu, with the support of the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF), including the capture of Uvira. It urges the M23 to immediately halt and reverse its offensive operations, calls on Rwanda to withdraw its forces from eastern DRC, and strongly urges the M23 to cease all forms of expansion in North Kivu and South Kivu, as well as other provinces, to prevent further spillover of the conflict.
MONUSCO’s potential role in South Kivu, in line with its new mandate, was apparently an issue during the negotiations. The mission withdrew from South Kivu in June 2024 as part of the disengagement process requested by the Congolese government in November 2023. Many Council members, including the US, apparently supported the mission’s redeployment to South Kivu as part of its support to the peace processes, particularly in ceasefire monitoring. In this regard, language that authorises MONUSCO to verify alleged violations of the permanent ceasefire in North Kivu and South Kivu was apparently contentious. It seems that China and Russia broke silence to express caution in light of the evolving security situation on the ground and proposed caveats in this regard, which the US apparently opposed. In line with the suggestions made by China and Russia, the draft text in blue specifies that the mission’s area of operation is limited to North Kivu and Ituri provinces, except when needed to support ceasefire monitoring and verification activities in South Kivu as mandated by the Security Council and when the mission determines that the situation permits, at which time MONUSCO is requested to notify the Council in writing.
During the negotiations, the US also proposed several changes to the text relating to thematic language. It sought to remove any reference to gender and misinformation and disinformation—a trend also witnessed in negotiations on the mandates of other UN peace operations. Many Council members, including Denmark and Slovenia, apparently insisted on the retention of references to gender, underscoring, among other things, the significance of the issue in the context of the pervasive sexual and gender-based violence in eastern DRC. The penholder apparently sought to accommodate the US by removing text on reproductive health and changing the language on misinformation and disinformation to “false and falsified information campaigns”, while retaining all other references to gender in the draft resolution in blue.
The US and Russia also requested the deletion of references to climate, peace and security in the draft, but members such as Denmark and Slovenia insisted on retaining it, as reflected in the text in blue. The US further sought to include the phrase “as applicable” in the context of references to international humanitarian law (IHL) in the draft text. This request was opposed by members such as Denmark and Slovenia and was not accommodated.
During the negotiations, Denmark also apparently sought to include a reference to the Independent Commission of Inquiry on the human rights situation in the South and North Kivu provinces of the DRC established by the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in February, but it seems that China and Russia opposed this. As a result, this reference was not incorporated in the draft text in blue.
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**Post-script: On 19 December, the Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 2808, renewing the mandate of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) for one year, until 20 December 2026.