Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2025

The Assembly will hear an address by His Excellency Felix Antoine Shisekide Sholombo, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I request protocol to escort His Excellency and invite him to address the Assembly. Madam President, Secretary General, distinguished heads of state and government, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, at the outset I would like to warmly congratulate Annalena Baerbock on her election as President of the 80th Regular Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations. Her leadership and her commitment to multilateralism will be crucial for the success of our work. I also here at this podium would like to pay tribute to her predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Philemon Yang, whose commitment and dedication were critical to the previous session. Lastly, I reaffirm my country's full trust in the actions of the Secretary General of the UN, Mr. Antonio Guterres, for his unwavering efforts to strengthen our organization and to promote solutions to the challenges threatening peace, security, and prosperity throughout the world, especially in the region of the Great Lakes of Africa, which includes the DRC. Madam President, I commend the relevance of the theme of this 80th session, Better Together – 80 Years and More for Peace, Development, and Human Rights. It highlights eight decades of joint efforts of a UN dedicated to peace, development, and universal well-being based upon an unwavering promise of collective security. The 80th anniversary of the United Nations, which is the guarantor of this security and has been since 1945, is an opportunity to reaffirm the virtues of effective multilateralism and to pay tribute to the ideals of peace, human dignity, and solidarity between nations which inspired its founders. Although the United Nations remains a pillar for the regulation of international relations as well as the prevention and resolution of conflicts and the promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms, today it is facing systemic challenges which are putting its credibility and capacity for action to the test. The profound changes ongoing during our era, especially protracted armed conflict, climate deregulation, recurring humanitarian crises, and constantly evolving transnational threats, remind us that multilateralism is not an option. It is a necessity for all of us. We remain convinced that the responses to the challenges of the 21st century can only emerge from collective solutions based upon cooperation, justice, and shared responsibility. Madam President, after its election in June, the DRC is preparing to sit as a non-permanent member on the Security Council for 2026-27. I, on behalf of my country, once again sincerely thank the member states for the trust and solidarity they have shown toward us. Our participation will be firmly constructive and holistic. It will be based on two indivisible priorities, peace and security on one hand and prevention and resolution of conflict on the other. We also plan to actively contribute to the development and implementation of a new Agenda for Peace in order, through our capacity and our experience, to propel reforms of peacekeeping and peacebuilding operations, as well as the adaptation of the UN Collective Security System. With regard to Security Council reform, my country reaffirms the common African position as enshrined in the Azovini Consensus and the CERT Declaration. Africa must hold two additional seats in the non-permanent member category and two seats in the category of permanent members with the same rights, including veto rights, the same privileges, and the same obligations as the current permanent members. With its 54 states and more than 1.2 billion inhabitants, Africa can no longer remain on the sidelines of decisions that concern peace and international security. Madam President, another priority is the illegal exploitation of natural resources, one of the major and most persistent causes of conflict. The DRC plans to center debate on exemplary governance of strategic minerals in order to guarantee exploitation that complies with the principles of sustainable development, economic sovereignty, and people's well-being. On a global scale, breaking the toxic link between profit for mining and financing non-state armed groups requires a comprehensive approach based on harmonizing rules of due diligence and traceability from mines to the consumer, the comprehensive transparency of supply chains and effective beneficiaries, independent mechanisms for oversight and audit, strengthened operational cooperation between customs, judicial, and financial authorities, targeted and effective sanctions against traffickers and their networks, and a staunch fight against corruption supported by standards of good governance, public contracts, and the traceability of payments. Of course, the dimensions of human rights and transitional justice, as well as the women peace and security and youth peace and security agendas, remain indispensable to this action. Another effective inclusion is the precondition for a just, lasting, and inclusive peace. Madam President, in the run-up to the establishment of the independent commission of inquiry established by the UN Human Rights Council on the massacres perpetrated a few months ago by our assailants and their proxies in the east of my country, I solemnly call upon the international community. It has the moral and political duty to support this crucial body in order to establish truth, bring justice to victims, and lay the groundwork for a lasting peace rooted in memory and shared responsibility. Madam President, as the planet warms, marginalization becomes deeper and conflicts multiply. The diagnosis that in July 2023 inspired the vision for a new agenda for peace by Secretary-General remains as relevant as ever. The world is now facing multifaceted and profound crises. The foundations of prevention have been weakened, and international law, so strongly enshrined in the UN Charter, which calls upon states to refrain from the threat or use of force, is too often flouted. Our system of collective security is being shaken. It will not survive without a massive increase in solidarity of interest and compliance with rules. In this context, the rhetoric of war is gaining ground, and we are helplessly watching the return of old demons, armed aggression, wars over resources, and for the conquest of vital territory, which have spared no continent. While the war between Israel and Hamas is ravaging Gaza with the risk of regional spillover and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict continues, other hotspots are raging in Yemen, Myanmar, and Syria. The armed conflict that is continuing in my country is a tragic example of this. For three decades now, peace and security have broken down in the east of the DRC. This war has transformed into a predatory enterprise. It has long since transcended merely military or geopolitical dimensions. It aims to pillage our resources, erase our collective memory, and destroy our communities. Its consequences are catastrophic – millions of deaths, decimated families, almost 7 million IDPs, women and children who have been targeted, villages razed to the ground, generations sacrificed. In several regions of the east, we see all the indicators of an attempt at extermination. The UN itself, through the mapping report, has documented the scale of these atrocities. This is not just a conflict. It is a silent genocide that the Congolese people have been suffering for more than 30 years. In July, more than 300 civilians, including 48 women and 19 children, were massacred in the territory of Ruchuru by the AFC and M23 with the support of the Rwandan Defense Forces. These crimes are not isolated incidents. They are part of a gruesome whole. I thank the United States for taking the initiative last month of convoking an extraordinary session of the Security Council to examine these massacres, which were documented by Human Rights Watch. To end this conflict, the Security Council, in Resolution 2773 of February 21st, 2025, called for the withdrawal of M23 from the cities of Goma and Bukavu and from all the areas under its control, as well as for the dismantling of the parallel administrations established in violation of the sovereignty of the DRC, as well as an end to all assistance, direct or indirect, to M23. Here I commend the leadership of President Donald Trump, who paved the way for a dialogue that led to the signing on June 27th, 2025, in Washington of a peace agreement between the DRC and Rwanda. This agreement explicitly requires that Kigali carries out a complete and verifiable withdrawal of its troops and lifts so-called defensive measures. It also calls for the disengagement, disarmament, and conditional integration of non-state armed groups within the armed forces of the DRC and the Congolese National Police, the establishment of a joint mechanism of security coordination, as well as a provision guaranteeing respect for territorial integrity and a cessation of hostilities. The withdrawal of Rwandan troops, the end of their support to M23, and the restoration of the authority of the Congolese state over all the occupied areas are non-negotiable conditions for a real peace. I call upon the United Nations to ensure the strict enforcement of this agreement, which is now critical to the implementation of the aforementioned resolution. Until these decisions are carried out, the blood of innocence will continue to flow. In the same vein, the DRC and the AFC M23 signed on July 19, 2025, in Doha, a declaration of principles that commits the parties to strive together toward a peaceful solution. I would like to thank His Highness the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, for his dedication and commitment to peace in the DRC and in the Great Lakes region. Lastly, I express my deep appreciation for the coordination provided by His Excellency for Esso Zimna Niasimbe, President of the Council of Ministers of Togo, as part of the Lome process. This dynamic emerges from the convergence of the efforts of the Lawanda process, which have been constantly led by His Excellency Joao Manuel Gonsalves Lorenzo, President of the Republic of Angola and acting President of the African Union, current President of the African Union, as well as the Nairobi process facilitated by His Excellency Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, former President of the Republic of Kenya. Together, these initiatives have laid the groundwork for a unified mechanism of regional facilitation. This momentum is something we hope to maintain to preserve continental cohesion, strengthen coordination between African initiatives, and establish a harmonized framework for action in order to restore lasting peace to the east of the DRC. Our goal remains unchanged to bring about just, lasting, and verifiable peace, not just an empty and ephemeral period of calm, which for almost 30 years now has too often disappointed our people. We expect that the international community to stand on the side of right with constancy and courage. That is how truth will win out over impunity, and that peace will become possible. Madam President, the diplomatic process being carried out with all parties to the conflict is in no way incompatible with justice and reparations. If the world still hesitates to put a name to our pain, well, we will not wait. We are the main witnesses of it. We will be those who bring about justice, but we need your solidarity, your support, as well as complete compliance with international law. The DRC does not need charity or condolences. It needs justice, truth, and dignity. Our country is doing its part. We've signed peace agreements, agreed to dialogue, made commitments toward reconciliation. Yet a false peace based on impunity and forgetting is only a precarious truth. History will not judge our speeches, but our ability to recognize mass crimes, including genocide, and to end impunity. Madam President, the DRC is a country full of life, natural wealth, and human resilience. We want to contribute to global peace, but peace begins with recognition of our own tragedy. I solemnly call upon this Assembly to recognize the Congolese genocide, to support our battle for truth and justice, and to help us at last build lasting peace in the heart of Africa. We call upon the UN to establish a regime of targeted sanctions against perpetrators of economic crimes, as well as war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes of genocide that have been committed in the east of my country. We call upon the UN to support all actions that aim to curb illicit supply chains and minerals which for decades now have been financing war and human tragedy. These actions must be implemented with the support of the African Union, the UN, and our development partners, with the involvement of adjacent states, as well as businesses that purchase and process these minerals stained with blood, as well as financial institutions through which this cash transits, as well as civil society organizations. I state this solemnly. The international community has the moral and political duty to recognize this tragedy for what it is, a genocide, and to act accordingly. Silence and inaction in the face of these crimes amounts to complicity. We call for the immediate establishment of an international commission of inquiry that is independent and sufficiently funded to establish truth, bring justice to victims, and break the cycle of impunity that has been fueling this tragedy for decades. Madam President, terrorism remains a serious threat to peace and international security. No region of the world has been spared. After Asia, Western Europe, and North America, this scourge has become rooted in Africa and is destabilizing several sub-regions. Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, although eroded by international action, maintains some capacity in gray zones and is spreading its influence. Boko Haram in the north of Nigeria and Al-Shabaab in Somalia maintain significant territorial control. In Central Africa, after the devastation caused by the Lord's Resistance Army, or LRA, led by Joseph Kony, the northeast of the DRC is suffering under the Allied Democratic Forces, a Ugandan terrorist group that has sworn allegiance to the Islamic State. These extremist groups have left behind them, in their wake, a devastating toll of loss of human life and continue to threaten regional stability. A member of the Global Coalition Against ISIS, the DRC, calls on the UN to more staunchly implement the recommendations of this coalition and the ACABA process, that is to say the sharing of intelligence, curbing of financing, combat against propaganda and sanctuaries for terrorism, as well as increased support to victim communities while fully respecting international humanitarian law. Madam President, as we face a climate crisis, the Paris Agreement remains a crucial legal framework for the accountability of states when it comes to emissions and adaptation to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Thus, the DRC has adopted its National Adaptation Plan 2022-2026. We have committed to stopping and reversing deforestation and forest degradation – land degradation – by 2031, while promoting sustainable development and inclusive rural transformation. Since December 2021, a package of measures has supported the restoration of forests, especially the school garden program, to plant a billion trees by 2030. This aims to strengthen CO2 sequestration and the resilience of our ecosystems. We commend the adoption of the 5-CMA.5 decision, which establishes new financing mechanisms including the Loss and Damages Fund, to complement existing resources and to provide tangible solutions for the most vulnerable countries. With our unique environmental capacity, the DRC is at the heart of these solutions. It's prepared to mobilize its natural assets to protect the global climate as long as financial commitments are predictable, accessible, and commensurate with environmental and human imperatives. Madam President, allow me also to address the issue of energy challenges and the protection of our ecosystems. I'd like to recall that the Congo Basin is home to the second-largest tropical forest in the world, considered by many scientists to be the largest land-based carbon sink, as well as a vast hydrographic network dominated by the Congo River, the second-largest in the world in terms of throughput. These vital resources are severely threatened by destructive activities including deforestation, illegal exploitation, and pollution, which are often exacerbated by recurring armed conflict, which amount to real crimes against nature. That is why the DRC supports the initiative spearheaded by Vanuatu, Fiji, and Samoa to establish at the international level ecocide as a crime in order to punish illicit acts and arbitrary actions that cause severe environmental damage. Madam President, the adoption of the Pact for the Future recalls the necessity of accelerating the implementation of the SDGs five years before the deadline of 2030. The DRC has placed this imperative at the center of its action through the Strategic National Development Plan 2024-2028, which places the Congolese people at the heart of its priorities and incorporates the three dimensions of sustainable development, the environmental, social, and economic dimensions. This plan is based on clear guidelines, including strengthening democratic governance and security, modernizing infrastructure and the business environment, protecting the environment, and guaranteeing access to essential social services including water, sanitation, education, health care, electricity, and so forth. The results have been mixed, for only SDGs 12 and 13 still seem attainable by 2030, but concrete progress has been made. Free education has allowed more than 5 million children to return to school. Universal health coverage has expanded access to high-quality health care. Women's empowerment policies are reducing socioeconomic gaps. These accomplishments, however, are jeopardized by the persistent lack of security in the east of the country and the vulnerability of our economy to external shocks. Our economy, therefore, must transform in order to become a driver of sustainability and prosperity. My country is a solution to climate challenges. My country plans to make full use of its forests, its biodiversity within a climate economy that is turned toward a green, resilient, low-carbon type of growth. In this regard, the Grand Inga project, one of the largest hydroelectric complexes in the world, embodies our ambition and strengthens the position of the DRC as a country of solutions. It provides clean, competitive energy to provide electricity to our territory, to decarbonize our industries, to support regional energy integration, and to pave the way for new applications including green hydrogen. This trajectory is based on developing integrated carbon markets, attracting responsible investment, and creating decent jobs and sustainable livelihoods for our communities. However, there remains one major obstacle – financial constraints. The growing burden of African public debt combined with illicit financial flows is reducing our room for maneuver. The additional needs for achieving the SDGs in Africa have been estimated at $1.6 trillion. At the same time, illicit capital flight is undermining our currency and our macroeconomic stability. Hence the need for urgent reform of the international financial architecture in order to guarantee that developing countries have fair and predictable access to concessional financing that is aligned with their national trajectories, including through a better channeling of special drawing rights, capitalization of multilateral development banks, as well as counter-cyclical cash flows and a strengthened fight against illicit flows. Madam President, since I took up my post in my country, the DRC, I have pushed for a new dynamic in public affairs that includes systematically the gender dimension at all levels to ensure heightened presence of women in decision-making bodies. For example, the percentage of women within the government has risen from 17% in 2019 to 32% in 2025. Madam President, as part of a strategic and multi-sectoral approach that aims to mobilize the youth for national progress, my government has adopted a national youth policy. This demonstrates the commitment of our state to ensure full participation of young people in the life of our nation and to make sure it is a priority, a cross-cutting priority associated with clear and measurable goals. Madam President, the DRC aspires toward peace, justice, and development. It is ready to take action alongside all of you for a UN that is stronger, more inclusive, and more just. With all of its human, natural, and strategic assets, my country plans to use them to build a better future for future generations and for our common house that is planet Earth. God bless humanity. May God bless us with the grace of a real, lasting peace between all of the world's nations. Thank you. On behalf of the Assembly, I wish to thank the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.