Angola floats 'proposals' to end DR Congo fighting
The conflict has flared since 2021 with the resurgence of the Rwandan-backed M23 armed group despite a flurry of diplomatic efforts, including a US-brokered peace deal signed last month.
Angola President Joao Lourenco (L) and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) President Felix Tshisekedi on Monday disussed some "very interesting" proposals. (AFP FILE)
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LUANDA — Angola said Monday it had floated to President Felix Tshisekedi proposals to end the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and that the Congolese leader had found them "interesting".
The resource-rich region, which borders Rwanda as well as Burundi, has been beset by decades of continual violence.
The conflict has flared since 2021 with the resurgence of the Rwandan-backed M23 armed group despite a flurry of diplomatic efforts, including a US-brokered peace deal signed last month.
Tshisekedi met his counterpart Joao Lourenco in Angola's capital Luanda, the Angolan presidency said in a statement after the visit, which lasted "a few hours".
"The Congolese statesman said that President Joao Lourenco put forward "some proposals" which he found "very interesting" and which, in terms of the search for peace in his country, could "contribute significantly"," the statement said.
It was not immediately clear what measures had been presented. Previous Angolan attempts to broker a truce failed to resolve the crisis.
The meeting between Tshisekedi and Lourenco, the current chair of the African Union, comes days before a gathering on Thursday of African Great Lakes region defence ministers to address the increasingly parlous security situation in the DRC.
Zambian defence minister Ambrose Lwiji Lufuma is expected to chair the meeting in Livingstone, with all 12 defence ministers and defence chiefs from the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) expected to attend.
The ICGLR comprises Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Congo-Brazzaville, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
Fighting broke out Saturday between the M23 and pro-Kinshasa forces in several towns around the strategic eastern DRC city of Uvira.
Under US pressure, the M23 had announced on December 17 its withdrawal from Uvira, while asking mediators to ensure the city's protection from violence and "remilitarisation".