The UN's acting top envoy for Congo, Vivian van de Perre, warned the Security Council that the conflict in eastern Congo is escalating and expanding from North and South Kivu into Tshopo province. She said heavy weapons and offensive drones are being used in urban areas, posing risks to civilians and infrastructure. The warning came as a joint Ugandan-Congolese army operation rescued more than 200 civilians held captive by the ADF in eastern DRC, according to a Ugandan military statement. Children were among those freed, the youngest being a 14-year-old girl, the statement said. Several ADF fighters were killed in the operation and a cache of weapons was recovered, the statement added.
The child soldier crisis remains severe across the DRC. A 17-year-old boy named Kito claimed to have killed at least 100 people while with an armed militia in Ituri province, according to The Independent - World. In Ituri province, 13,000 children remain in armed groups after 1,360 were released in 2025, according to a UN report. The UN's annual report says at least 2,365 children were recruited across the country in the year to June 2025. In North Kivu province, at least 2,054 children were recruited according to the NGO Children for the Future and Development (EADEV).
I killed at least 100 people. It's really difficult to know how many, because we were shooting people en masse. But obviously it's a lot.
Meanwhile, M23 is consolidating parallel administrative structures in areas under its control, including Goma, van de Perre said. Thousands of Congolese refugees in Burundi have returned home following the withdrawal of M23 rebels from Uvira, according to UNHCR. At least 33,000 Congolese refugees have returned home as of March, the UN reported. Burundi hosts more than 200,000 Congolese refugees, including 66,000 in the Busuma camp, UNHCR said.
The ADF was originally formed in Uganda in the 1990s by people disgruntled with the government's treatment of Muslims. In 2021, Uganda and DR Congo launched a joint offensive to drive the ADF out of their Congolese strongholds. The ADF leader Musa Seka Baluku reportedly first pledged allegiance to IS in 2016, and IS first acknowledged its activity in the area in April 2019. A 2024 study by BBC Monitoring found that the ADF was responsible for more than half of the civilian deaths in that conflict-hit region. On the diplomatic front, officials from Congo, Rwanda and the United States met in Washington last week and agreed on coordinated steps to deescalate tensions, according to multiple reports. Massad Boulos, senior adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump on African and Arab affairs, said MONUSCO remains indispensable to the peace process. Multiple reports indicate that U.S. President Donald Trump has emerged as a key peace facilitator.
They were looking at me. It will stay with me forever, the things I saw and the horrible things I had to do. I killed people. I saw these people die every day.
The situation in South Kivu remains tense and the renewed hostilities have expanded and shifted the front lines, including toward Burundi's border, increasing the risk of a regional conflagration.