KINSHASA, DR Congo
The Congo government and Rwanda-backed M23 rebels aim to hold direct talks on April 9, sources from both camps said on Tuesday, a potential boost to Qatar’s efforts to end the Central African country’s worst fighting in decades.
The meeting in Doha would be
the two sides’ first direct negotiations since M23 fighters captured eastern
Congo’s two largest cities in a rapid offensive that has left thousands dead
and forced hundreds of thousands more from their homes.
One Congolese official said
that talks were scheduled for April 9 “unless the other side misbehaves”. A
source inside M23 confirmed the date and said it would present Kinshasa with
its demands. Both sides have agreed not to publicly discuss the substance of
the talks, the sources said.
Democratic Republic of Congo
President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame held a
surprise meeting in Doha on March 18.
Qatar hosted a second round of
talks between the two countries beginning on Friday and met separately with M23
representatives. Congolese officials and M23 have not yet met, sources said.
Rwanda denies supporting M23
and says its military has been acting in self-defence against Congo’s army and
militias hostile to Kigali.
The conflict, which has raged
on Congo’s eastern border with Rwanda and Uganda, is rooted in the fallout from
Rwanda’s 1994 genocide and regional competition for mineral riches.
M23 has long demanded direct
negotiations with Kinshasa, but Tshisekedi had refused, arguing that M23 was
merely a front for Rwanda. He reversed his position last month amid mounting
battlefield defeats, and agreed to send a delegation to Luanda, the Angolan
capital.
Those talks were cancelled at
the last minute when M23 pulled out after being hit by European Union
sanctions.
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