The Trump administration is in discussions to relocate up to 1,100 Afghan nationals — many of whom directly supported US military operations during the two-decade war in Afghanistan — to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a move that has drawn sharp criticism from veterans' advocates. The group, which includes interpreters, relatives of US service members, and more than 400 children, has been living at Camp As-Sayliyah, a US military installation in Qatar, for roughly a year after being evacuated from Afghanistan following the 2021 US withdrawal and the Taliban's return to power.

The resettlement talks were first reported by the New York Times and subsequently confirmed by AfghanEvac, a non-profit organisation that assists Afghan evacuees. The Afghans were originally brought to Qatar for their own protection: having cooperated with American forces, they face serious danger if returned to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. According to AfghanEvac president Shawn VanDiver, around 900 of the 1,100 individuals have already been deemed eligible for resettlement in the United States under existing programmes, while approximately 100 to 150 are family members of active-duty US military personnel. More than 700 are women and children.

The proposed destination, the DRC — a vast Central African country roughly the size of Western Europe — is itself in the grip of a severe humanitarian crisis. Decades of armed conflict and instability have displaced millions of its own citizens, and the UN Refugee Agency recorded 8.2 million internally displaced people as of September 2025, with that figure expected to reach 9 million by the end of the year. Sending vulnerable Afghan evacuees there has prompted bewilderment among advocates.