DAKAR – Congo's government will participate in peace talks in Angola on Tuesday with the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group that has captured key areas of Congo’s mineral-rich east, a spokesperson said Monday.
A delegation representing Congo is currently in the Angolan capital, Luanda, for the talks, Tina Salama, the spokesperson for President Felix Tshisekedi, told The Associated Press. Tshisekedi had earlier refused direct negotiations with the rebels.
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M23 also sent a delegation to Luanda, the group's spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka said on X Monday.
The conflict in eastern Congo escalated in January when the Rwanda-backed rebels advanced and seized the strategic city of Goma, followed by Bukavu in February.
Angola, which has acted as a mediator in the conflict, announced last week that it will host direct peace negotiations between Congo and M23 on Tuesday.
Peace talks between Congo and Rwanda were unexpectedly canceled in December after Rwanda made the signing of a peace agreement conditional on a direct dialogue between Congo and the M23 rebels, which Congo refused.
“A dialogue with a terrorist group like the M23 is a red line that we will never cross,” Tshisekedi said during a speech to the diplomatic corps on Jan. 18.
M23 is one of about 100 armed groups that have been vying for a foothold in mineral-rich eastern Congo near the border with Rwanda, in a conflict that has created one of the world’s most significant humanitarian crises. More than 7 million people have been displaced.
The rebels are supported by about 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, according to U.N. experts, and at times have vowed to march as far as Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, about 1,575 kilometers (978 miles) to the east.
The U.N. Human Rights Council last month launched a commission to investigate atrocities, including allegations of rape and killing akin to “summary executions” by both sides.
International pressure is growing on Rwanda as the European Union sanctioned five Rwandan nationals, including the commander of Rwandan special forces deployed in eastern Congo. On Monday, Rwanda cut diplomatic ties with Belgium and ordered all its diplomats to leave, a month after Brussels suspended development aid to the East African country. Rwandan President Paul Kagame had accused Belgium of “destroying” Rwanda in a speech on Sunday.
The U.S. State Department said last week it was open to a mining partnership in Congo and has confirmed that preliminary discussions had begun.
On Sunday, Tshisekedi met with the U.S. special envoy to Congo, Rep. Ronny Jackson, to discuss potential security and economic partnerships.
“We want to work together so that American companies can invest and work in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and for that we have to make sure there is a peace in the country,” Jackson told reporters after the meeting.
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Associated Press writers Lorne Cook in Brussels, Belgium and Ignatius Ssuuna in Kigali, Rwanda contributed to this report.