Angola, a mediating country in the conflict in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), announced on Wednesday March 12, the start of “Direct peace negotiations” From Tuesday between delegations from the Congolese government and the March 23 movement (M23), an armed group that has taken up large sides of the territory. “Following the procedures taken by Angolan mediation […] Delegations from the DRC and M23 will begin direct peace negotiations on March 18 in the city of Luanda ”announced the Angolan Presidency.
This press release follows the announcement the day before, “Direct negotiations” during “Next days”without precise calendar, by the Angolan president, Joao Lourenço. A major lock has jumped: the talks began on the repeated refusal of the Congolese president, Félix Tshisekedi, of a dialogue with the M23, which, supported by Rwandan troops, has made a lightning breakthrough in the east of the DRC since the beginning of the year, seizing key cities. For its part, the M23 repeated in February its ” commitment “ resolve “The conflict in the east of the DRC through a direct dialogue approaching the deep causes of the conflict in order to establish lasting peace”.
This turnaround in Kinshasa, which put the heads of M23 leaders last week, comes after Félix Tshisekedi’s visit to its Angolan counterpart on Tuesday. A meeting that aimed at “Consulting” On the situation in the DRC, according to a previous Luanda press release. Since January, the big cities in the east of the DRC, Goma and Bukavu, have fallen under the control of the M23, which took up arms in 2021, supported by around 4,000 Rwandan soldiers, according to UN experts. Kigali had repeatedly denounced the refusal of President Tshisekedi to dialogue with the armed group, which the Congolese head of state describes as “Terrorist group”.