Bottom Line

Ebola deaths have passed 4,000, even as the government reports fewer new infections, and six cases have emerged in AFC/M23-controlled parts of Lubero. An Uvira military court sentenced 27 Republican Guard soldiers to death for abandoning or failing to defend positions above the city; the DRC has not carried out a known execution since 2003 despite lifting its moratorium in 2024. Government-aligned forces reported retaking Remeka on a fluid Masisi front, while the broader territorial map continues to favor AFC/M23. Burundi has meanwhile announced an unusually broad entry ban covering people who live in or pass through rebel-controlled areas, including UN personnel.

Health

Ebola deaths pass 4,000 as transmission declines unevenly

The national Ebola death toll has passed 4,000. Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba reported a decline in new infections, but six cases were reported in AFC/M23-controlled areas of Lubero territory: two in Kayna and four in Alimbongo. Four of the patients were identified after death, according to the movement’s health unit.

MSF said the Ervebo vaccine does not replace infection-prevention measures against the Bundibugyo strain. France also announced humanitarian support for the response during Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot’s visit to Bunia.

Cholera kills five people in Ankoro

The Ankoro health zone in Manono territory, Tanganyika, has recorded more than 200 cholera cases and five deaths since epidemiological week 37.

Security and Eastern DRC

Twenty-seven Republican Guard soldiers sentenced to death

An Uvira military court convicted 91 members of the Republican Guard’s 21st Simba Battalion over the defense of Malimba and Masangu, on the heights above Uvira, during the night of August 22–23. Twenty-seven soldiers received death sentences for cowardice before the enemy, 54 were sentenced to five years in prison and 10 received six-month terms for violating orders. Twenty-one of the 112 defendants were acquitted.

The government lifted the country’s execution moratorium on March 13, 2024, citing treason and infiltration within the armed forces as the war intensified. Amnesty International recorded at least 125 death sentences in 2024 and 359 in 2025 across all categories of cases. It has recorded no execution in the DRC since 2003.

FARDC and Wazalendo report retaking Remeka

FARDC and Wazalendo forces reported retaking Remeka, Muhororo, Kamuhobe and Mihano in Masisi on October 3 after several hours of fighting. Remeka had returned to AFC/M23 control on September 25 and has changed hands repeatedly in recent weeks.

The recapture is a tactical gain on the fluid Ufamandu front. AFC/M23 controls large parts of North Kivu, including Goma, while the principal northern front remains concentrated in Masisi and Walikale. The movement also controls Bukavu, and fighting continues in the South Kivu highlands.

Burundi bars travelers from AFC/M23-controlled areas, including UN personnel

Burundi’s security minister announced that anyone originating from, staying in or transiting through AFC/M23-controlled areas would be denied entry. He explicitly said the measure includes UN personnel working in those areas.

The minister announced no effective date, border procedures, appeal process or exemptions. The stated scope covers Congolese residents, foreign travelers and international personnel, including humanitarian workers. The measure could affect aid operations, trade and civilians who use Burundi as a transit or refuge route from South Kivu.

Politics, Justice and Governance

Shadary and Minaku questioned over alleged threats to state security

Former PPRD permanent secretary Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary and former National Assembly president Aubin Minaku were questioned by the military prosecutor over alleged threats to the internal security of the state. The two senior allies of former president Joseph Kabila were arrested in December 2025 and January 2026 and transferred to military prosecutors after more than 200 days in detention. Authorities have not publicly detailed the conduct underlying the investigation.

Shadary was Kabila’s chosen PPRD-FCC candidate in the disputed 2018 presidential election. The official results placed Félix Tshisekedi first and Shadary third, but Kabila’s FCC won an overwhelming parliamentary majority. Tshisekedi consequently governed in coalition with Kabila’s camp until he dismantled the arrangement in late 2020. The case now reaches two of the most senior figures from the former ruling establishment amid the continuing rupture between the Kabila and Tshisekedi camps.

Presidency reopens consultations with CENCO over the national dialogue

President Félix Tshisekedi sent chief of staff Anthony Nkinzo and adviser Fortunat Biselele to consult CENCO president Fulgence Muteba in Lubumbashi. Muteba insisted that the proposed national dialogue must be inclusive and credible.

CENCO and the Protestant Church of Christ in Congo had spent more than a year building a Social Pact for Peace and consulting the government, opposition and AFC/M23. In July, church leaders said they would act as mediators after Tshisekedi accepted a dialogue in principle. The presidency then recast the initiative as a three-month, state-led process based on consultations in all 26 provinces, kept negotiations with AFC/M23 in the Doha channel and offered religious groups representation in a preparatory commission rather than control of the mediation. The Lubumbashi meeting reopens a direct channel with CENCO, but its role in the presidential process remains unsettled.

Ituri orders permanent relocation of two displacement sites

Ituri’s government confirmed that the Kigonze site would not reopen and that the ISP/Bunia site would be moved to the outskirts of Bunia. The sites had sheltered about 19,000 and 13,000 people respectively. Provincial authorities say camps inside the city may be used as refuges by armed groups.

The decision follows repeated security raids at Kigonze. During a September 6–7 operation, FARDC, police and intelligence officers searched shelters for suspected armed men; the search found no weapons and led to 24 detentions. Soldiers entered again during the night of September 20–21 looking for people suspected of criminal activity. Gunfire sent residents fleeing, and local sources reported unconfirmed casualties. A fire two days later destroyed shelters and belongings. Thousands have since dispersed into host families or remain without stable accommodation, while disrupted access to the camp has complicated humanitarian assistance and Ebola surveillance.

Diplomacy

DRC offers compensation after Makotipoko patrol clash

Félix Tshisekedi expressed regret and offered compensation to victims of the August incident involving patrols from the two Congos near Makotipoko. Tshisekedi and Denis Sassou Nguesso also agreed to strengthen coordination intended to prevent another confrontation.

The August 26–27 clash near Makoloko Island involved a Congo-Brazzaville patrol of gendarmes and naval personnel and about 30 FARDC members traveling in four boats. Congo-Brazzaville reported two wounded personnel and others missing; two soldiers detained in the DRC were later returned and hospitalized. A bilateral investigation is examining how the shooting began.

Energy and Public Services

SNEL proposes a floating power plant as Kinshasa supply falls

Electricity available to Kinshasa has fallen from about 700 megawatts to 390–450 megawatts. SNEL estimates that the capital needs about 1,200 megawatts to end routine load shedding.

The utility is negotiating with Turkey’s Karpowership to place a 134-megawatt floating power plant at Matadi and connect it to the grid supplying Kinshasa. A floating plant is a complete generating station mounted on a ship or barge, allowing it to be moored near an existing grid connection and deployed more quickly than a new land-based plant. The proposed vessel would increase Kinshasa’s present supply by roughly 30 percent, bringing it to about half the level SNEL says the capital requires. Civil society has asked SNEL to publish the contract’s cost, duration, tariffs and effect on customer bills.

Economy, Trade and Mining

DRC caps annual cobalt exports at 96,600 tonnes through 2027

The quota system that replaced the cobalt-export moratorium sets an annual ceiling of 96,600 tonnes for both 2026 and 2027. Of that amount, 87,000 tonnes are allocated through base quotas and 9,600 tonnes are reserved by the regulator for projects it considers strategically important.

The DRC imposed an export ban in February 2025 after oversupply drove cobalt prices to a nine-year low. The new annual ceiling is less than half the country’s 2024 exports and is intended to tighten global supply and support prices while giving the regulator greater control over company exports.

DRC-bound freight through Dar es Salaam rises 30 percent

Cargo moving through Dar es Salaam for the DRC increased from 5.99 million to 7.77 million tonnes during the 2025–2026 fiscal year. The DRC now accounts for 53 percent of all transit freight handled by Tanzania’s principal port.

Dar es Salaam is a critical Indian Ocean gateway for the landlocked Congolese economy, particularly the southern mining belt. The World Bank describes its road-and-rail corridor as the region’s busiest by volume and most important by freight value; it carries almost 40 percent of DRC copper production, as well as fuel imports and agricultural exports.

Foreign retailers face inspections as new restrictions take effect

The six-month compliance period under the March retail-commerce decree expired on September 30, and the Economy Ministry announced forthcoming inspections. Small commerce and ordinary retail are reserved for Congolese operators. Foreign businesses may remain in ten specialized, capital-intensive retail sectors only after receiving a digital notice of no objection; wholesale remains open to both Congolese and foreign operators.

The rules also prohibit one company from operating simultaneously as a wholesaler and retailer. The government says the separation is intended to prevent large suppliers from selling directly to consumers at an advantage over the small Congolese retailers who depend on them for stock, while preserving foreign investment in specialized sectors.

Environment and Conservation

Groups allege mining inside Upemba National Park’s integral zone

Twenty-four civil-society and environmental organizations alleged that mining equipment and infrastructure were operating inside Upemba National Park, which spans Haut-Katanga, Lualaba and Haut-Lomami. They described heavy machinery, local and expatriate workers and prospecting at Bena Mulumbu in the park’s integral protection zone, as well as excavators and artisanal miners around Kipafu in the Lubudi-Sampwe hunting domain near Kyubo.

The complaint identified neither the operators nor any permits. Congolese conservation law prohibits mining exploration or extraction inside protected areas. The allegation forms part of a wider land-use conflict: a recent national protected-area atlas found that more than half of the DRC’s protected areas overlap to some degree with mining permits held by public companies, private firms and individuals. The groups have asked the presidency to send an investigative mission to Upemba.