On Tuesday, Angola announced plans to act as a mediator in the conflict between the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Rwandan-backed rebel group M23, according to a press release posted on the official page of the Angolan president’s office.
Felix Tshisekedi, the president of DR Congo, was in Angola to discuss a potential peace process. According to the press release, Angola will begin to establish contacts with both the Congolese government and M23 rebels with direct negotiations to be carried out in the coming days.
The announcement comes after several cancelled peace talks hosted by Angola that had previously excluded M23 and instead focused on their Rwandan backers.
M23 is one of about 100 armed groups that have been vying for a foothold in mineral-rich eastern Congo near the border with Rwanda, in a conflict that has created one of the world’s most significant humanitarian crises. More than 7 million people have been displaced.
The rebels are supported by about 4,000 troops from neighbouring Rwanda, according to U.N. experts, and at times have vowed to march as far as DRCongo’s capital, Kinshasa, over 1,000 miles away.
In a lightning three-week offensive, the M23 took control of eastern DRCongo’s main city Goma and seized the second-largest city, Bukavu, last month.
The U.N. Human Rights Council last month launched a commission that will investigate atrocities, including allegations of rape and killing akin to “summary executions” by both sides.
Congolese authorities see M23 rebels as a Rwandan proxy army. The rebels are backed by some 4,000 troops from Rwanda, according to evidence collected by United Nations experts.
Facing pressure from M23, Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi recently sought the help of allies to protect the territorial integrity of his country, about the size of western Europe.
M23 is one of about 100 armed factions vying for control in eastern Congo. But unlike the others, they are mainly made up of ethnic Tutsis who failed to integrate into the Congolese army. The group says it is defending ethnic Tutsis and Congolese of Rwandan origin from discrimination, although critics say their Rwanda-backed campaign is a pretext for economic and political influence over eastern Congo.
