UN Special Envoy Huang Xia tells the Security Council the Great Lakes situation continues to deteriorate despite progress on peace processes

13 October 2026

Huang Xia, the United Nations Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region, briefed the Security Council on 13 October 2026. He reported progress on resolving the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, including on disarming the FDLR and on the work of the Expanded Joint Verification Mechanism Plus. He warned that the situation continues to deteriorate, citing ongoing hostilities, rising regional tensions and the continued spread of Ebola. He called for building confidence, strengthening regional cooperation and making the peace processes more inclusive, including through meaningful participation by women and youth groups. Al Jazeera reported that Huang described the United States-led and Qatar-led peace processes as having made notable progress while the security and humanitarian situation in eastern DR Congo had continued to worsen, and that the United Nations will facilitate a meeting in Lusaka, Zambia, on 18 October between the defence ministers of Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania.