DAKAR, Senegal — The federal government of Congo will maintain peace talks subsequent week in Angola with the Rwanda-backed M23 insurgent group that has captured key areas of Congo’s mineral-rich east, mediator Angola introduced Wednesday.
A press release from Angolan President João Lourenço’s workplace stated the events would start “direct peace negotiations” within the Angolan capital, Luanda.
Angola has acted as a mediator within the battle in jap Congo, which escalated in late January when the Rwanda-backed rebels superior and took management of the strategic jap Congo metropolis of Goma. In February, M23 seized Bukavu, jap Congo’s second greatest metropolis.
Congo President Felix Tshisekedi was in Angola on Tuesday to debate the potential for peace talks.
“Following the diligence carried out by Angolan mediation within the battle affecting the Jap Democratic Republic of Congo, the Authorities of the Republic of Angola makes public that delegations from the Democratic Republic of Congo and M23 will start direct peace negotiations, on March 18, within the metropolis of Luanda,” Lourenço’s workplace stated in an announcement on Wednesday.
The Congolese authorities didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
“We acknowledge and sit up for the implementation of this Angolan mediation initiative,” Tina Salama, the spokesperson for President Tshisekedi stated on social media on Tuesday.
The announcement comes after a number of canceled peace talks hosted by Angola that had beforehand excluded M23 and as an alternative centered on their Rwandan backers.
Peace talks between Congo and Rwanda had been unexpectedly canceled in December after Rwanda made the signing of a peace settlement conditional on a direct dialogue between Congo and the M23 rebels, which Congo refused.
M23 is one in all about 100 armed teams which were vying for a foothold in mineral-rich jap Congo close to the border with Rwanda, in a battle that has created one of many world’s most vital humanitarian crises. Greater than 7 million folks have been displaced.
The rebels are supported by about 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, in accordance with U.N. consultants, and at instances have vowed to march so far as Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, over 1,000 miles away.
The U.N. Human Rights Council final month launched a fee to research atrocities, together with allegations of rape and killing akin to “abstract executions” by either side.
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AP Africa information: https://apnews.com/hub/africa
