Rwanda, DR Congo peace talks hit snag as mediator Angola calls off meeting

DRC presidency says talks had hit deadlock over a Rwandan demand that the DRC hold direct dialogue with M23.

Peace talks between the leaders of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to end the conflict in the eastern DRC have been called off, according to the Angolan presidency, which has been mediating between the two sides.

“Contrary to what we expected, the summit will no longer be held today,” the presidency’s media officer Mario Jorge told journalists on Sunday, without elaborating on why the meeting was cancelled at the last minute.

Angolan President Joao Lourenco – the African Union mediator to end the conflict – was meeting alone with DRC leader Felix Tshisekedi, Jorge said.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame had been expected at the meeting but it was not clear if he was in Angola.

There had been hopes the talks would reach an agreement to end the conflict in the eastern DRC, where the M23 fighter group – which the DRC and the UN say is backed by Rwanda – has seized swaths of territory, displacing thousands and triggering a major humanitarian crisis.

The DRC presidency said negotiations had hit deadlock over a Rwandan demand that DRC hold direct dialogue with the M23 rebels.

Before the talks, fighting intensified between the DRC army and the M23 rebel group on Friday.

The DRC’s army had accused M23 of killing 12 civilians earlier this week in villages of the Lubero territory in the eastern province of North Kivu.

An M23 spokesperson, however, denied the accusation, discrediting it as “propaganda” from the DRC government.

M23 is one of about 100 armed groups that have been vying for a foothold in the mineral-rich eastern part of DRC near the border with Rwanda.

The conflict there has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with more than seven million people displaced.

Rwanda denies that it backs the M23, but in February admitted that it has troops and missile systems in eastern DRC to safeguard its security, pointing to a buildup of DRC forces near the border.

According to a UN expert group report, 3,000 to 4,000 Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) members are fighting alongside the M23 in DRC.

Last month, the DRC and Rwanda’s foreign ministers agreed on the terms and conditions of the disengagement of Rwandan forces in eastern DRC.

In July, DRC signed a ceasefire with M23 that came into effect in August, but fighting has resumed since.

Earlier this month, the United States said it was “gravely concerned” by ceasefire violations by M23 rebels.

Aline Kasereka, a mother of six living in the DRC’s town of Lubero, approximately 50km (30 miles) from the villages where the fighting took place this week, said the peace talks between the two neighbouring countries are urgently needed.

“We are tired of the war, every day we move, we do not know in which country we are any more,” Kasereka told The Associated Press news agency.