Armed conflicts in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo

ADF fighters took control of Makumo, in Bapere sector, Lubero territory, after attacks the day before, according to Samuel Kakule Kagheni, president of the Bapere sector civil society, who said the fighting caused a mass displacement of residents.

The US imposed sanctions on Rwanda's ministry of defense and on Zigama Credit and Savings Society, a Rwandan financial institution the Treasury said operates on behalf of the country's security services. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Rwanda must halt its support for M23 and withdraw its troops from eastern DRC. Rwanda denies backing the rebels, Reuters reported.

The latest situation report from Congo's public health institute put confirmed Ebola cases at 10,060 and deaths at 4,887, government data showed on Tuesday, according to Reuters. The outbreak was announced in mid-May.

Fighting resumed on Tuesday at Luola and on the strategic Tchad hill, in Banakindi locality, Kisimba grouping, Walikale territory, after FRN rebels attacked positions held by the army and Wazalendo, ACTUALITE.CD sources said. Heavy weapons fire was reported near Pinga.

At least five people were killed in an attack on Kabizo, in Bwito chiefdom, Rutshuru territory, around 1:30 on Monday, said Euphrem Kabasha, the Rutshuru territory administrator under the FRN, who blamed the FDLR and Nyatura fighters of the CMC.

FRN spokesman Colonel Fidèle Rugabo said FRN forces repelled a coordinated offensive on Rugezi, in the Minembwe region, and fighting continued around Gipimo, in Fizi territory. The FRN also accused Kinshasa of attacking Rugezi and Point Zéro overnight with kamikaze drones and heavy artillery.

The army and allied Wazalendo attacked FRN positions on the Rushihe hill, above Katobo village in Walikale territory, on Saturday and took control of it, ACTUALITE.CD sources said. Residents of Katobo fled towards Ihula or into the forest.

Eight people are missing after kidnappings attributed to ADF-linked elements in the Babila Teturi grouping, Mambasa territory, Ituri, said Grâce Kakundo Kasamba of the Nouvelle Société civile congolaise. The latest, on Thursday 22 October, was a cocoa buyer of the company Esco Kivu, taken near the Etabe river at about 9:00.

The FRN said the army bombarded the Rugezi area, in the Minembwe region of South Kivu, with kamikaze drones and heavy artillery overnight from 21 to 22 October. FRN spokesman Lawrence Kanyuka said government forces were preparing a large-scale offensive, and the statement reported Burundian troops crossing the Ruzizi river.

Civil society sources said Wazalendo militiamen allied with the army attacked FRN positions from 5:00 on Wednesday at Kaniola centre, Nabishaka, Muhungu, Mwirama and Igurhu, with intense fighting continuing until midday. They said the clashes were concentrated in the Walungu and Uvira territories of South Kivu.

Journalist Laurent Vainqueur Muliro of Radio communautaire Walikale Amka was shot dead on Wednesday evening in an ambush attributed to suspected Wazalendo militiamen near Bitale, in Kalehe territory, South Kivu, ACTUALITE.CD reported. Two other people were killed and two seriously wounded, and travellers were robbed.

FRN fighters took control of Munanira and Bideka, in Uvira territory, South Kivu, and the army and its allies were driven from the area, civil society sources said. Fighting with heavy and light weapons had been reported since the morning, and panic was reported in the Ruzizi plain.

More than 12,000 households have fled fighting between FRN rebels and the army, backed by Wazalendo, in the Kaziba chiefdom, Walungu territory, South Kivu, local sources told ACTUALITE.CD. The clashes, which began on 12 October, entered their ninth consecutive day on Tuesday.

Heavy fighting between FRN rebels and the army, each backed by allies, was reported from 8:00 on Tuesday at Mugobe and other villages of the Itara-Luvungi grouping in the Ruzizi plain, South Kivu, ACTUALITE.CD sources said. It spread towards Rugobagoba, Kamonyi and Lubarika in Uvira territory, and some schools sent pupils home.

Four farmers were killed in an ambush attributed to CODECO militiamen in the Dhendro grouping, Djugu territory, Ituri, on Saturday, civil society representative Germain Dhetsina said in a statement on Monday. Civil society called for a joint patrol by the army, MONUSCO and the Ugandan army.

The army, backed by Wazalendo militias, and rebels of the Front pour la Refondation de la Nation (FRN) fought again at Kibati, in Walikale territory, North Kivu, from about 5:00, ACTUALITE.CD reported. Its sources said government forces and allies launched an offensive to retake the locality, which FRN fighters have held for more than two years.

FRN spokesman Lawrence Kanyuka said that from 1:00 government forces and allies, including the FDLR and elements of the national defence force of Burundi, shelled Rugezi and the Minembwe area with heavy artillery and kamikaze drones, and fired mortars near Buhimba and Mahanga. Local sources reported intense fighting in Masisi territory.

Ten people were killed overnight from 15 to 16 October in an attack attributed to ADF fighters on mining sites at Makimbilio, Biasiko and Makamanda, in Mambasa territory, Ituri, according to the APDEF Mambasa monitoring team. The toll awaits confirmation from security authorities.

Three drivers, of Congolese, Kenyan and Somali nationality, were shot dead on Tuesday on the RN27 road in Djugu territory, Ituri, in reprisals after a man presented as a CODECO fighter was struck and killed by a vehicle, Walendu Djatsi sector chief Justin Gudza Kiza said. Traffic between Bunia and Mahagi was paralysed.

DR Congo's Health Ministry reported 9,066 confirmed Ebola cases and 4,381 deaths in the outbreak, Al Jazeera reported.

Eleven civilians were killed in an attack attributed to CODECO militiamen on Jissa, in Djugu territory, Ituri, overnight from 12 to 13 October, and the local health centre was burned and looted, according to Bahema-Nord civil society coordinator Charité Banza Bavi. The toll awaits independent confirmation.

Twirwaneho fighters took Ruhuha and Rubarati in Uvira territory, South Kivu, on Monday after fierce fighting with the army, which is allied with Wazalendo and the Burundian army, Kivu Morning Post reported. Twirwaneho spokesman Colonel Fidèle Rugabo said both had fallen.

Former president Joseph Kabila launched a political and military coalition, the Front for the Refoundation of the Nation, that includes the M23 armed group, at a news conference in Goma on Monday, saying Corneille Nangaa would be a deputy. The DRC government did not immediately respond.

An attack attributed to CODECO militiamen on the village of Maze in Djugu territory, Ituri, killed 11 people, mostly women and elderly people who had recently returned home, local sources told Radio Okapi. About a hundred civilians took refuge near the MONUSCO base at Drodro.

Intense fighting between AFC/M23 and army-allied Wazalendo militias went on all day in the Ufamando grouping of Masisi territory, displacing residents towards Ngungu, and AFC/M23 pushed back Wazalendo fighters who had advanced to Mugasa, near Kibabi on the road to Rubaya, Kivu Morning Post reported, citing local sources.

Two civilians, one of them from the indigenous pygmy community, were killed in an incursion attributed to ADF fighters on Longela village in Mambasa territory, Ituri, according to the Nouvelle Société civile congolaise de Mambasa.

Heavy fighting was reported between the Congolese army, backed by Wazalendo militias, and AFC/M23 at Kashovu, Burora, Kudepot and Katoyi in Masisi territory, North Kivu; local sources said the clashes caused mass displacement.

Three children drowned when a canoe capsized on the Ituri river as residents fled an attack attributed to ADF fighters in Basili chiefdom, Irumu territory, on the morning of 6 October; several houses, including the Bagalaba village chief's residence, were burned, local sources said.

Fresh clashes between the army, backed by Wazalendo groups, and AFC/M23 broke out in several parts of Masisi from early on 5 October, local sources said. Wazalendo fighters reportedly retook Nyakigano, Nkokwe and Kashovu near Kasake; Radio Okapi said control of the localities could not be independently established.

AFC/M23 political coordinator Corneille Nangaa received a delegation of the African Union's panel of facilitators in Goma for consultations on the peace process; it included former presidents Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, Mokgweetsi Masisi of Botswana and Sahle-Work Zewde of Ethiopia.

Six bodies were found at Nduye, in Mambasa territory, Ituri; local sources told Radio Okapi the victims were civilians believed killed in an ADF incursion inside the Okapi Wildlife Reserve early the previous week, an attack that also killed an ecoguard and burned a reserve sub-station.

Congolese troops and Wazalendo militias retook Remeka and nearby localities in Masisi territory from AFC/M23, local military sources told Radio Okapi. Remeka controls access to the rebel-held Rubaya mining centre.

A military court in Uvira sentenced 27 soldiers to death for cowardice in the face of the enemy, after trying 112 who had fled clashes with AFC/M23 and its allies.

Government data showed an Ebola outbreak centred on Ituri had killed 4,018 people.

Ituri's provincial government confirmed the permanent relocation of the Kigonze and ISP displacement sites in central Bunia, which held about 19,000 and 13,000 people, to the outskirts of the city.

Security Council members reiterated their call for the Rwanda Defence Force to end all support to M23 and withdraw immediately and unconditionally from Congolese territory, France's UN ambassador said.

Heavy clashes were reported around Point Zero near Minembwe, South Kivu, between AFC/M23 and allied Twirwaneho fighters and the army, backed by Wazalendo militias and Burundian troops.

The Ebola transit centre at the Kigonze displacement camp near Bunia, which had sheltered some 19,000 people, burned down. The UN said thousands had fled the camp in the preceding days after reports that soldiers had entered it searching for weapons.

The DRC told the UN Security Council that a drone strike it attributed to the Rwanda Defence Force hit a Congolese army position at Pinga, killing five people and seriously wounding eight.

The DRC and Rwanda resumed talks in Geneva on carrying out the Washington agreement, centred on the FDLR and Rwandan forces in Congo, as fighting continued in North and South Kivu.

A ceasefire verification mission of government and M23 members, with regional observers, deployed to Minembwe, a day after Switzerland announced a roadmap for peace talks. Fighting continued on the ground.

M23 withdrew from Sange and nearby localities north of Uvira, which the army confirmed, while keeping control of Kamanyola near the Rwandan and Burundian borders, AFP reported.

The US Treasury sanctioned the Rwanda Defence Force and four senior officers, saying the force was 'actively supporting, training, and fighting alongside' M23.

AFC/M23 fighters left Uvira, the South Kivu city they had seized in December 2025, and the army said it had regained control the next day.