A spokesperson for the DRC’s President Felix Tshisekedi informed the Reuters news agency that they had received an invitation from Angola for the talks.
The government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels will hold talks next week, as announced by mediator Angola. A statement from President Joao Lourenco’s office on Wednesday revealed that the two parties will begin “direct peace negotiations” in the Angolan capital, Luanda, on March 18.
Angola has previously mediated in the conflict in eastern DRC, which escalated in late January when the M23 took control of the strategic city of Goma. In February, the rebels also seized Bukavu, eastern Congo’s second-largest city.
Rwanda denies supporting the M23 armed group in the conflict, which stems from the spillover of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide into the DRC and the struggle for control over the DRC’s vast mineral resources.
DRC President Felix Tshisekedi visited Angola on Tuesday to discuss the possibility of talks. His spokesperson, Tina Salama, told Reuters on Wednesday that the government had received an invitation from Angola but did not confirm whether it would participate in the negotiations.
M23 leader Bertrand Bisimwa stated on X that the rebels had compelled Tshisekedi to the negotiating table, describing it as “the only civilized option to resolve the current crisis that has lasted for decades.”
The DRC government has reported that at least 7,000 people have died in the conflict since January. Last week, the United Nations refugee agency disclosed that nearly 80,000 people have fled the country due to the armed conflict, with 61,000 arriving in neighboring Burundi since January, according to the agency’s deputy director of international protection, Patrick Eba.
The M23 is one of approximately 100 armed groups competing for control of resources in eastern Congo, which is rich in strategic minerals such as coltan, cobalt, copper, and lithium.
Neighboring countries including South Africa, Burundi, and Uganda have troops stationed in eastern Congo, raising concerns of a potential all-out regional war reminiscent of the Congo wars of the 1990s and early 2000s, which claimed millions of lives.
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