Angola secures new ceasefire deal in eastern Congo
Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi (right) and Angola’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Tete Antonio exchange documents moments after the two nations held bilateral talks at state house on October 21, 2023.
Angola says it has secured a new ceasefire in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, signaling renewed diplomat effort to stop a long-running war that has seen Kinshasa and neighbouring Rwanda bicker in public.
The decision was arrived at in Luanda, the Angolan capital, where top diplomats from Rwanda and the DRC had gathered on the invitation of their host Angola.
It means the new ceasefire between the Congolese army, FARDC, and the M23 rebels will kick in from midnight on August 4, Téte António, the Angolan Minister for External Relations said on Tuesday night.
This will be the second such ceasefire brokered by an external entity in a month. Last month, the US announced it had secured pledges from parties to stop fighting for two weeks to allow humanitarian responses. Washington said it would monitor violations.
Verification Mechanism
The ceasefire agreed Tuesday in Luanda will be supervised by the reinforced Verification Mechanism, according to Angola’s presidency.
António had chaired the Second Ministerial Meeting on the Security and Peace Situation in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), part of what is often known as the Luanda Process under the mediation of Angola. After the meeting, he said the officials had “agreed on the establishment of a ceasefire that will come into force from midnight on 4 August 2024.”
Luanda Process is the African Union-endorsed peace bid to help calm tensions between Rwanda and DRC, blamed for the continual conflict in eastern DRC. Kinshasa has accused Kigali of fueling M23 rebellion, a charge it denies. But Rwanda also accuses Kinshasa of supporting FDLR rebels, remnants of the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide.
But Lunda’s bid has been dragged and almost stalled on various occasions, especially after Rwanda and DRC upped their tensions and at some point cut all diplomatic channels. Earlier this year, the leaders of two sides agreed to reopen those channels, via Luanda.
Yet this ministerial meeting itself had come late. According to Luanda, the meeting had not taken place as earlier scheduled due to the escalation of the situation on the ground, aggravated by the bombing of the Mugunga refugee camp on May 3, as well as the changes in the portfolios of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs both in DRC and Rwanda. The two countries have recently held elections and shuffled ministers.
Earlier in February, DRC President Félix Tshisekedi and Rwanda’s Paul Kagame visited Luanda to agree on dialogue after which ministers had gathered there to discuss the future of that dialogue.
Before the Luanda meeting, President João Lourenço met in private with the DRC Minister of State and Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation and La Francophonie Thérèse Wagner, and with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Rwanda Olivier Nduhungirehe.
President Lourenço is the African Champion of Peace and Reconciliation and mediator mandated by the African Union for the peace process in the DRC also known as the Luanda Process.
Last week, DRC President Félix Tshisekedi said his Kenya counterpart William Ruto has mismanaged the Nairobi Process on peace in his country and that his country was only depending on the Luanda Process led by President Lourenço.
Angola appealed called Friday in New York to all the negative forces in the east of the DRC including the M23, to fully implement the peace commitments, with a view to ceasing all hostilities on the ground.
The call was expressed by the military counsellor of the Permanent Mission of Angola to the UN in New York, Colonel José Filomeno da Fonseca, at the meeting of the Sanctions Committee 1,533 of the Security Council on the DRC.
According to the diplomat, these initiatives are aimed at encouraging dialogue at the highest level and re-establishing an environment of trust between the two sides, in order to prevent the current political crisis from turning into a regional conflict.
Earlier this month, a UN envoy highlighted the alarming violence and neglected humanitarian crisis in DR Congo adding that the security situation has resulted in high levels of violence and widespread civilian displacement.
The Special Representative of the Secretary-General Ms Binue Keita Ms Keita also reported of a rise in cases of sexual and gender-based violence with 122,960 cases recorded in 2023, an increase of 3 per cent from 2022.
