Congo and M23 rebel group will hold peace talks on Tuesday: Angola

dakar: The government of Congo will hold peace talks next week in Angola with the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group that has captured key areas of Congo’s mineral-rich east, mediator Angola announced on Wednesday.

A statement from Angolan President João Lourenço’s office said the parties would begin “direct peace negotiations” in the Angolan capital, Luanda.

Angola has acted as a mediator in the conflict in eastern Congo, which escalated in late January when the Rwanda-backed rebels advanced and took control of the strategic eastern Congo city of Goma. In February, M23 seized Bukavu, eastern Congo’s second-biggest city. Congo President Felix Tshisekedi was in Angola on Tuesday to discuss the possibility of peace talks.

“Following the diligence carried out by Angolan mediation in the conflict affecting the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the Government of the Republic of Angola makes public that delegations from the Democratic Republic of Congo and M23 will begin direct peace negotiations, on March 18, in the city of Luanda,” Lourenço’s office stated on Wednesday.

The Congolese government did not immediately respond to a request for comment. “We acknowledge and look forward to the implementation of this Angolan mediation initiative,” Tina Salama, the spokesperson for President Tshisekedi

said on Tuesday.