Luanda, March 24 (IANS) Angola said on Monday that it has decided to “relieve itself” as the mediator in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) conflict to focus on broader African Union priorities as its current chair.
A new mediator will be identified in the coming days, Angola’s presidency said in a statement.
“In collaboration with the African Union (AU) Commission, necessary steps will be taken in the coming days to identify the country whose head of state, supported by the SADC (Southern African Development Community), the East African Community, and the facilitators, will take on the mediation of the conflict between the DRC and Rwanda,” the statement said.
Direct talks between the DRC government and the March 23 Movement (M23) rebel group, originally scheduled for March 18, did not happen due to factors including “some external elements unrelated to the ongoing African process”, the statement said.
A planned DRC-Rwanda peace summit, slated for December 15, 2024, in the Angolan capital of Luanda, also failed to materialise after Rwandan President Paul Kagame decided not to attend, Xinhua news agency reported.
“Angola has dedicated itself with the utmost seriousness, energy, and resources to achieving long-lasting peace in the eastern DRC and normalizing relations between the two neighbouring countries,” the statement added.
Attempts to bring Congo and the rebels to the negotiating table have repeatedly failed.
The two sides were scheduled to hold direct talks for the first time in Angola last week after Kinshasa dropped its longstanding refusal to speak to the rebels, but M23 then pulled out in protest of European Union sanctions against its leaders and Rwandan officials.
In May 2022, during an AU summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, the AU appointed Angolan President Joao Lourenco to lead mediation efforts to ease tensions and promote peace between the DRC and Rwanda. Angola has since launched several initiatives to facilitate dialogues between the two countries.
–IANS
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