Paris Humanitarian Conference: When misguided perceptions replace political clarity

The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently released a video on X announcing an international conference in Paris, supposedly to address a “catastrophic humanitarian crisis” in DR Congo. The framing itself reveals more about political posturing than about the reality on the ground. Many of the claims in this initiative are either factually shaky or sensationalized, raising doubts about the real motives behind this call. Contrary to alarmist rhetoric, eastern DR Congo is not facing a generalized humanitarian collapse. Most of the people displaced by past fighting have already returned home this year, according to several UN reports. What these communities need now is not emergency relief but long-term development aid to rebuild lives shattered by years of conflict. The overlooked emergency The true humanitarian crisis lies elsewhere—one that rarely makes headlines. By cutting off areas under AFC/M23 control from the national banking system, the Kinshasa government has effectively strangled local economic recovery. Without access to financial services, ordinary people are left to rebuild their lives without the basic tools to do so. This economic isolation is compounded by administrative paralysis. Kinshasa refuses to recognize official documents—passports, travel permits, business papers—issued in these territories, even though they are produced by the same state agents as before. The result: people cannot travel, trade, or even access medical care without running into bureaucratic roadblocks. Cross-border traders face double taxation when moving goods between AFC/M23 areas and government-held territory, as if they were entering a foreign country. This has crippled commerce in vital cities like Goma and Bukavu. A conveniently selective narrative Yet these real, tangible hardships are absent from the French humanitarian narrative. Instead, the focus remains on shock-driven slogans—particularly around sexual violence—crafted to provoke emotion rather than to convey nuance or factual accuracy. Meanwhile, the security picture contradicts the official storyline. Violence has decreased in zones under AFC/M23 control, while abuses persist in government-held areas, including in Kinshasa itself, where recent footage has shown police brutality. Pro-government militias such as the Wazalendo continue to share videos of their own atrocities online—evidence that violence is hardly confined to “rebel” territory. The diplomacy of incoherence France publicly supports regional peace initiatives led from Washington, Doha, and Luanda. Yet European sanctions—imposed against the AFC/M23 movement just before key talks in Angola—have actively undermined those very efforts. The same applies to sanctions targeting Rwanda, often justified without concrete evidence, which has strained regional diplomacy rather than strengthened it. Against this backdrop, the Paris conference looks less like a humanitarian effort and more like a geopolitical maneuver. Instead of clarifying the issues, it risks deepening confusion—obscuring the political and structural roots of the conflict in eastern Congo. The real emergency is political DR Congo's crisis is not one of humanitarian collapse, but of governance, accountability, and diplomacy. What the region needs is not another hastily convened “emergency” conference in Paris, but the strengthening of ongoing dialogue frameworks in Washington, Doha, and Luanda. Launching parallel initiatives only weakens the credibility of existing peace processes and delays sustainable solutions. Humanitarian diplomacy should be more than a series of emotional appeals; it must rest on coherence, continuity, and respect for local actors already engaged in peacebuilding. If France and its partners truly wish to support stability in DR Congo and the Great Lakes region, they should reinforce the mechanisms that already exist—rather than reinventing them under the guise of a “humanitarian response.” By mis-framing a political problem as a humanitarian one, Paris risks derailing fragile progress and perpetuating the very instability it claims to address.

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Paris Humanitarian Conference: When misguided perceptions replace political clarity