Fresh clashes erupted Wednesday in Masisi, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a day after three former African heads of state on the African Union's panel of facilitators (Uhuru Kenyatta, Olusegun Obasanjo and Mokgweetsi Masisi) visited Goma, the city held by the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group. The visit aims to help verify a ceasefire between the Congolese army and M23, agreed in Doha in July 2025 and followed by a US-brokered DRC-Rwanda deal in December, though fighting has continued on the ground. The renewed violence underscores the fragility of peace efforts in a mineral-rich region where M23 has seized large areas of North Kivu and South Kivu, including the provincial capitals Goma and Bukavu.