Kinshasa, February 8th of 2025.

“Today, the DRC begins to conclude a dark chapter in its history. Our nation has been disparate, broken, ever since the 1990s; the Congo Wars ruined us, but the Kivu Accords began to unite us once again. Ever since then, I have received countless letters from representatives of other Mai-Mai groups in the region; CNPSC has written over fifteen letters to me, Mai-Mai Kata Katanga has written letters to me, along with other thousands of groups, and each time I receive a letter, I make it my goal to write as best a letter I can, detailing the situation to the best of my abilities; I wasn’t able to do anything about their situation, I was a politician, but I didn’t lead a nation, I didn’t have that, that ability, that power; now, however, we’re going to be beginning our transformation, and our rehabilitation, of a people; the age of the Mai-Mai is over.”

That quote, from Moïse Katumbi, was given to a local media group on February 8th of 2025, as Katumbi announced that he would do simultaneous peace conferences in every Congolese province to rehabilitate the Mai-Mai groups, to pacify them, and to transform their members into productive members of society, contributing in as many ways as they can.

It was with that objective, the goal of bringing peace to the entire Congo, that Katumbi began the peace processes to end the Katanga Insurgency and all of the Mai-Mai groups in the DRC, whose numbers have been dwindling steadily since the 1990s; in 2001, there were around 20-30,000 Mai-Mai groups; by 2025, that number is down to 1-2,000; the Congo has been slowly but surely been lacking a necessity for Mai-Mai, especially as the state comes back from its lack of control.

Mainly, the DRC is looking to integrate as many Mai-Mai as possible back into society; and they are going to be targeting every major Mai-Mai group as well, such as Kamwina Nsapu and the Mai-Mai Kata Katanga, which are big Mai-Mai groups; another group that will also be contacted will be the CNPSC, or the National Coalition of the People for the Sovereignty of the Congo.

According to some reports (Andy, 2019), the Mai-Mai groups often select representatives which look after their own interests and therefore, lose touch with their base in the East, or in Katanga, which interferes heavily with any peace process; recognizing that problem, Katumbi will be setting up conferences in every single province in the DRC, and listening to the problems of the Mai-Mai groups and looking for ways to rehabilitate them directly, talking with the leaders of every group.

This means that the peace process will be lengthy and bureaucratic, but at the end of it, the DRC should have essentially listened and attempted to fix every problem that these militia groups have; it’s complicated, and time-consuming, but Katumbi, as any great leader, has set his sights upon fixing the problem and, by God, he will fix it.

The Mai-Mai Solution

The existence of the Mai-Mai was simple; the lack of government intervention, and the sheer lack of government existence, especially in the fragile east, meant that the Congolese had to rise up in order to protect their communities.

These Mai-Mai however, vary heavily from place to place, from village to village, each of these groups is independent from one another, and they are composed of hundreds of different individuals, with different abilities, and different occupations; not all of the Mai-Mai fighters enjoy warfare or conflict, and it is the responsibility of the Congolese government to provide these fighters with a decent living, and provide them the ability to change their livelihoods into other occupations, which can revitalize the Congolese industries and enterprises all over the Congo.

This means that the DRC, with peace conferences in every province, will be providing standard peace terms for every Mai-Mai rebel group which currently exists in the Congo, and, essentially, these are going to be the terms:

• Each Mai-Mai group, and their leadership, formally ends their active combatant status in the DRC; their members will be subject to background checks and investigations by authorities; the lower-ranking soldiers or soldiers with minor violations, will have political amnesty.
• Each Mai-Mai group, and their leadership, is going to receive new documents, and new certificates, in order to update our government files on our population, and to ensure that all of these citizens are monitored for violations and crimes.
• Mai-Mai fighters who are unwilling to perform a civilian occupation, will be directed to apply for physical, and mental, exams that ascertain their abilities to participate in the National Guard of the DRC, which will be explained momentarily.
• Mai-Mai fighters who are willing to perform a civilian occupation, will be directed to the Congolese Worker Program, and will be prioritized, in order to grant them a new occupation with the opportunity for education.

Alongside that, the major groups will also be given the opportunity to formally quell their warfare, and be given the opportunity to participate in legitimate political struggle; and a formal pledge by Katumbi has been given that their political participation will be guaranteed by the state.

The National Guard

Alongside the peace conference, the Congolese president has drafted the plans for the creation of a national guard, encompassed by all provinces; essentially, it means that every province has their own national guard, proportional to their size.

Alongside of this proportionality, every province will have to fund their own national guard, which will be of course, lightly subsidized by the Congolese government.

A total of 75,000 men will compose the national guard, coming from every province in the DRC; and this is where the Mai-Mai come in. It’s expected that a lot of these men will decide to integrate themselves with the national guard, and as such, they will be taking aptitude exams and be integrated to the defense of their own nation.

This is a major opportunity to end the Mai-Mai era by bringing about peace and security to the Eastern Congo region and the Katanga insurgencies, both of which are a major drain on the security of the DRC. These accords and peace conferences are, certainly, an end of a violent, dark chapter in the history of the Congo, and Katumbi has taken the lead as its peaceful leader.