On 17 December 2012, Jason Stearns, director of the RVI Usalama Project, discussed the capture of Goma by the M23 rebel group and the escalation of violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) at a public event in London. Organized by the Africa Programme at Chatham House, in association with RVI, the event was entitled ‘M23 and the Challenges to Peace in the Eastern DRC’. The panel included Ben Shepherd, associate fellow at Chatham House and a former Director of Studies on the RVI Great Lakes Course, and Bronwen Manby of the Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project (AfriMAP). The event included a vigorous Q&A session involving senior diplomats from the Great Lakes region.