Congo rebels agree on withdrawal plan

Mar 22, 2002

LUSAKA - The government of t he Democratic Republic of Congo and rebels have agreed to withdraw from positions captured in fighting over the past month and resume peace talks, regional ministers said on Thursday.

LUSAKA - The government of t he Democratic Republic of Congo and rebels have agreed to withdraw from positions captured in fighting over the past month and resume peace talks, regional ministers said on Thursday.The fighting had threatened to derail peace negotiations in South Africa designed to end nearly four years of war in the former Zaire. Congo’s government quit the talks last week after Rwandan-backed rebels seized the eastern town of Moliro.Ministers from the countries involved in the many-sided conflict and senior rebel officials said after a meeting in Zambia’s capital Lusaka that the withdrawal plan was designed to help revive the peace talks in South Africa.“The (Congo) government should withdraw from Kayaya and Yayana within five days, and the (rebel) RCD-Goma should withdraw from Moliro and Pweto also within five days,” Angolan external affairs minister Joao Bernardo de Miranda said in a statement at the end of the meeting.Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia back the DRC government in the war which has killed two million people.

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