By Arnold Vieira, LUANDA
Angola
Leaders of Rwanda and the
Democratic Republic of Congo are due in the Angolan capital Luanda on Thursday
for a crucial summit to ease tensions between the two countries. From left: Presidents Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Joao Lourenco of Angola and Felix Tshisekedi of DR Congo at a meeting in Luanda to de-escalate tensions between Rwanda and DR Congo
A statement publicised by the
Angolan news agency Angop, said the talks initially scheduled for Monday had
been pushed to Thursday at the convenience of the leaders to be hosted by
President João Lourenço in his capacity as African Union mediator in the
conflict.
The meeting’s agenda is to
search for ways to overcome the crisis between Rwanda and the DRC, generated by
the resurgence of the M23 armed rebellion in eastern Congo, the official
statement said on Monday.
President Lourenço is also the
chair of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), which
developed the Luanda Roadmap that calls for both countries to respect each
other’s territorial integrity and stop supporting rebels.
Presidents Paul Kagame of
Rwanda, DR Congo’s Félix Tshisekedi and Burundi’s Évariste Ndayishimiye, the
current chairman of the East African Community (EAC), will be hosted by
President Lourenço.
Kenya’s former President Uhuru
Kenyatta, who is the EAC facilitator of the Nairobi peace process for DRC that
is urging dialogue with armed groups, will also be in attendance.
The meeting will be the first
time since the EAC agreed, two weeks ago, to link up its Nairobi Process with
the Luanda Roadmap after leaders said the two issues were related.
Last week, the UN said there
was a heavy humanitarian risk as people in DRC’s Rutshuru and Nyiragongo
territories in North Kivu were being displaced as fighting between the
Congolese army and the M23 continues.
According to the United
Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA), in just
two days, some 13,000 displaced people were registered in the north of the
provincial capital Goma.
In total, since the violence
broke out in March this year, more than 260,000 people have been displaced.
Some 128,000 of them have
settled in Nyiragongo, where nearly 90 percent of them live in some 60
collective centres and improvised sites, the UN added.
Rwanda and DRC leaders met in
July in Angola, where they agreed to resume diplomatic channels for discussing
their tensions. However, Kinshasa has since re-accused Rwanda of arming M23
rebels, claims Kigali denies, and counter accuses DRC of arming FDLR rebels
targeting Rwanda.
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