The foreign ministers of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) and Rwanda on Saturday agreed to accelerate efforts to de-escalate tensions and resolve their political crisis.
Regional relations in central Africa have been destabilized over the past few months, with the DR Congo accusing its smaller neighbor of backing a rebel militia that has displaced tens of thousands of people.
In a joint statement issued after their meeting in Angola, the ministers agreed to continue talking “as a priority way of resolving the political crisis between the two brotherly countries” and to define “a timetable for accelerating” the de-escalation plan signed in July.
Photo: AP
The roadmap for ending hostilities was reached at an Angola-brokered summit between Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi.
At the time, Angolan President Joao Lourenco called it a “ceasefire,” but clashes resumed the next day.
After several weeks of calm, the March 23 Movement (M23) militia went back on the offensive late last month, capturing swathes of new territory in eastern DR Congo in the past few weeks. Rwanda is accused of supporting the M23, a mainly Tutsi Congolese militia, which rose to prominence in 2012.
After laying mostly dormant for years, it resumed fighting last year, claiming the DR Congo had failed to honor a pledge to integrate them into the army, among other grievances.
Separately, 16 people died and 25 were missing after an attack in western DR Congo, local sources said on Saturday.
Several homes were also torched in the town of Misia on Wednesday, Kwilu Province Minister of the Interior Jean-Claude Bwanganga said.
“Sixteen people were killed and 25 others are missing,” he said, adding that soldiers and police had been dispatched to “hunt down these enemies.”
Misia is near Kwamouth, where fighting between the Yaka and Teke people has been raging since June. The conflict has left more than 180 people dead, the government said.
The UN says that tens of thousands have been displaced.
“Among the 16 people killed was the leader of a group” of villages, civil society leader Placide Mukwa said, adding that attackers in nearby forests regularly target settlements.
Eighteen people were killed in clashes between the Yaka and Teke in August, a government report showed.
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