Few details on a possible ceasefire in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo had come to light on Wednesday, the day after Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame held surprise talks in Doha.
Fighting in the mineral-rich east of the DRC has recently intensified with the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group launching a lightning offensive and capturing two provincial capitals within a few weeks.
Late Tuesday, Angola said that peace talks due to have been held in the capital Luanda that day between Kinshasa and the M23 had not taken place.
However, Qatar unexpectedly announced that Kagame and Tshisekedi had met in Doha for talks mediated by Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.
The two African heads of state whose previous attempts at talks collapsed at the last minute expressed their support for a ceasefire, a statement from the three countries said.
“The heads of state reaffirmed the commitment of all parties to an immediate and unconditional ceasefire” as agreed at an African summit last month, the statement said, calling the meeting “fruitful”.
No details have emerged on the terms of how the ceasefire will be implemented, as it would also have to involve M23 fighters on the ground to succeed.
Rwanda rejects claims it offers the group military, support though a UN experts’ report says around 4,000 Rwandan troops are in the DRC backing the M23.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the Congolese presidency said that the two African leaders “agreed on an immediate and unconditional ceasefire”.
Yet Rwanda did not mention a ceasefire, merely thanking the UAE leader “for his support towards constructive dialogue” in a statement on X.
Qatar’s diplomatic efforts follow its mediation in recent years on conflicts in Yemen and between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as in Afghanistan.
“Kinshasa has been reluctant until now to mediation by Qatar because the country is seen as close to Kigali particularly with its investments in Rwanda,” political analyst Tresor Kibangula from the Kinshasa-based Ebuteli research institute told AFP.
The wealthy Gulf nation already tried to mediate peace in the DRC two years ago, the expert said.
Qatar has signed several investment framework agreements with Kinshasa and Kigali in recent years.
In Rwanda, it is also financing, among other things, the building of a new airport hub near the capital to the tune of more than one billion dollars.
A source close to the Congolese presidency said that talks on setting up a ceasefire will now focus on implementing a roadmap adopted on Monday in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, during a ministerial meeting of the eastern and southern African regional blocs.
Since last month, the heads of state of the East African Community and the Southern African Development Community have called for an immediate ceasefire amid fears the conflict could ignite a wider regional crisis.
The roadmap, seen by AFP, foresees a permanent ceasefire being declared in the coming four months, with the support of UN peacekeepers in the eastern provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu.
The African Union commended the DRC and Rwandan leaders for their “commitment to dialogue” in a statement on Wednesday, urging all parties to “maintain the momentum”.
All diplomatic attempts to resolve the conflict in the eastern DRC have failed until now.
Half a dozen ceasefires and truces have been brokered and then broken in short order.
In mid-December, Tshisekedi and Kagame had been due to meet in Luanda but the two sides could not agree on the terms of an accord and the summit was cancelled at the last minute.
Since January, the M23, which claims to defend the interests of Congolese Tutsis, has seized the key cities of Goma and Bukavu in an advance that has killed more than 7,000 people, according to the DRC.
AFP has not been able to verify the figure independently.
A report by United Nations experts has said that Kigali de facto controls the M23 and is using the armed group to control the eastern DRC’s lucrative reserves of minerals including gold and coltan.
Kinshasa also accuses Kigali of looting its resources in the east.
Rwanda denies providing the M23 with military assistance but says it faces a threat in the DRC’s east from the FDLR group, founded by ethnic Hutu leaders involved in the 1994 Rwandan genocide of the Tutsis.
The last time the Congolese government and the M23 held talks was in 2013.
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