DRC and M23 rebels to start direct conversations next week, Mediator Angola says | News of the conflict
President’s spokesman Drc Felix Tshisekedi told the Reuters news agency that they had received an invitation from Angola for conversations.
The Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda supported M23 rebels They will talk next week, mediator Angola announced.
The statement of the Office of President Joao Lourenco on Wednesday states that two parties will begin “direct peace negotiations” in the Angolan capital Luand on March 18th.
Angola had previously acted as an intermediary in the eastern conflict of Drc, who escalated at the end of January when M23 took control of the strategic city of Gom in Eastern Kong. In February, M23 seized Bukava, the second largest city of Eastern Kong.
Rwanda denies the support of the M23 armed group in the conflict, which was rooted in the spread of Rwanda genocide from 1994 in Drc and the struggle for the control of the great mineral resources of DRC.
The President of Drc Felix Tshisekedi was on Tuesday in Angola to talk about the possibility of talking, and his spokeswoman Tina Salam told Reuters news agency on Wednesday that the Government had received an invitation from Angola, but did not say whether she would participate in conversations.
M23 leader Bertrand Bisimwa wrote on the X that the rebels forced Tshiseeked on the negotiating table, calling him a “only civilized option to resolve the current crisis that lasted for decades.”
The government announced that at least 7,000 people had died in conflict since January.
Last week, the United Nations Refugee Agency reported that nearly 80,000 people escaped from the country for armed conflict. Since January 61,000 has arrived in neighboring Burundi, said Deputy Director of International Protection of the Patrick EBA Agency.
The M23 is one of about 100 armed groups dealing with resources control in Eastern Congo, a home of huge strategic mineral reserves such as Coltan, Kobalt, Copper and Lithium.
DRC neighbors, including South Africa, Burundi and Uganda, have troops stationed in Eastern Congo, increasing the fear of a comprehensive regional war that could resemble the wars of the Kong in the 1990s and the early 2000s in which millions of people killed.
