DR Congo, Rwanda sign key agreement to advance peace process in eastern Congo

LUANDA, Angola

The Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda have signed a document key to advancing the peace process in the DRC’s troubled east, ceasefire-broker Angola said on Monday.

Since 2021 the Kigali-backed and largely ethnic Tutsi M23 rebel militia has seized swathes of the eastern DRC, displacing thousands and creating a humanitarian crisis.

In early August, Angola mediated a fragile truce that stabilized the situation at the front line.

But since the end of October, the M23 has been on the march again, and continues to carry out localized offensives.

Despite violations of the ceasefire, the DRC and Rwanda are maintaining diplomatic dialogue through Angola’s mediation.

Early in November, the two central African neighbors launched a committee to monitor ceasefire violations, led by Angola and including representatives from both the DRC and Rwanda.

On Monday, Kinshasa and Kigali’s foreign ministers approved a concept of operations document, a “key instrument” supposed to set out the terms by which Rwandan troops will disengage from Congolese territory, Angola’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

However the Angolan government statement gave no details of the procedures to be adopted.

A previous draft of the plan dated in August sets out the dismantling of a militia created by former ethnic Hutu leaders involved in the Rwandan genocide in 1994 as a precondition for Rwanda withdrawing its troops.

Often portrayed by Kigali as a threat to its security, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) is one of various disparate militias fighting alongside the Congolese armed forces against the M23.

For the past three decades, the DRC’s mineral-rich east has been plagued by internal and cross-border violence.