You're listening to the Briefing, first broadcast on 28 January 2025 on Monocle Radio.
Hello and welcome to the Briefing.
Coming to you live from Studio one here at Midori House in London, I'm Emma Nelson.
And coming up on today's program, the Democratic Republic of Congo accuses its neighbour Rwanda of, of declaring war.
We'll have the latest on an escalation of a decades long period of conflict and uncertainty.
Also coming up, the British Prime Minister joins a meeting of the EU's leaders for the first time since Brexit.
Are we really looking at a reset though?
That's why no one is surprised that Denmark's boosting its security setup.
And we head to the Royal Academy of Arts here in London to hear about the birth of Brazilian modernism.
That's all coming up right, right here on the Briefing with me, Emma Nelson.
Let's begin the program with this accusation by the Democratic Republic of Congo at its neighbour Rwanda that it's declared war.
M23 rebels backed by the Rwandan government have crossed the DRC's eastern border and have mounted an assault on the city of Goma.
Goma is the capital of North Kivu, which is an important mining region and a big supplier of metals that are widely used in everyday items such as smartphones.
Well, to tell us more about what's happening, joining me from Cape Town is Daniel Van Dalen.
He's a senior country Risk analyst at Signal Risk.
Good afternoon, Daniel.
Hi, Bev.
So is this a declaration of war?
I think there's been a lot of exchange of words on both sides and I don't think this is effectively the first time the war term has been used.
I think it's more just a case of a threat.