Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwandan foreign ministers affirmed Tuesday the need for warring parties to respect a ceasefire in eastern DRC, AFP noted.
The countries met with the Angolan foreign minister in North Kivu provincial capital Goma, east DRC, close to the Congolese and Rwandan border to launch a committee to monitor ceasefire violations.
A ceasefire between the DRC army and the Rwanda-backed M23 had been in place since early August following mediation by Angola.
“We all insisted on the need for a respect of the ceasefire,” Angolan Foreign Minister Tete Antonio told reporters following the meeting.
“The right path is the search for peace,” he added.
Congolese Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner did not comment after the meeting.
In a note to the press ahead of it she said there was a “certain contradiction” between “Rwanda’s public discourse and the actions on the ground, namely the capture of certain localities”.
But she did say the ceasefire had been “widely followed”.
The M23 relaunched an offensive in October in North Kivu seizing several localities and at times clashing with Congolese armed forces and groups of militia supporting them.
Angola condemned the occupation of one town by M23 rebels in early october as a “flagrant violation” of the ceasefire.
“We Rwanda, we are still engaged in the (peace) process,” Rwandan Foreign Affairs Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe said Tuesday.
The committee to monitor the ceasefire will be led by Angola and include representatives from the DRC and Rwanda.
On Sunday the M23 attacked a new area and temporarily took control of a town located on the banks of Lake Edward, which lies on the border between the DRC and Uganda.
Since launching a fresh offensive in late 2021, the largely ethnic Tutsi M23 rebel militia has seized swathes territory in DRC’s east, displacing thousands and provoking a humanitarian crisis.
© Agence France-Presse
