When the world's at stake,
go beyond the headlines.

A lot happens every day. Alliances shift, leaders change, and conflicts erupt. With In Brief, we’ll help you make sense of it all. Each week, experts will dig deep on a single issue happening in the world to help you better understand it.***The Democratic Republic of the Congo has been plagued by conflict for more than three decades, but in recent months the war – largely in the country’s eastern regions – has reached a fever pitch. The armed M23 rebel group – one of the many local and foreign armed rebel groups and militias in the country – has taken large swaths of land in the province of North Kivu and is advancing on the region’s capital, Goma. Millions were displaced last year due to the violence, according to U.N. officials, and hundreds of thousands have already been displaced since the start of 2024. We asked four experts to tell us more about what the M23 rebels want, what is driving the conflict, and where it might be headed.Read more below.Christoph N. Vogel Author of Conflict Minerals, Inc. & Co-founder of the Ebuteli Research Institute, Democratic Republic of the CongoUnspeakable violence has jolted the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo for decades, but it rarely makes international headlines. Since late 2021, the M23 rebel group — an insurgency with roots in foreign-backed rebellions of the 1990s — is back. Supported by Rwanda and Uganda, it has put a siege on the two-million-inhabitant city of Goma and controls nearly half of North Kivu. The Democratic Republic of the Congo, in turn, subcontracted militias, including the Rwandan Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, and private security companies. As the M23 tries to force its way to the negotiation table, Kinshasa is refusing any talks unless the rebels disarm. The latest military escalation coincides with the deployment of a