Keep Talking

The ongoing peace talks between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda under the auspices of Angolan President, Joao Lourenco have ended without any concrete agreement. According to information made public on October 5, 2024 by Rwandan Foreign Minister, Olivier Nduhungirehe, his Congolese counterpart, Therese Kayikwamba Wagner had refused to sign an agreed deal to help resolve the M23 rebel conflict in eastern DRC. In late August, both countries participated in negotiations aimed at easing the conflict, which has deepened the region's long-running humanitarian crisis and at times raised fears of a wider war. According to Nduhungirehe, delegates to the talks, including Congo's head of military intelligence had agreed and signed a plan for neutralizing the FDLR and lifting Rwanda's defence measures. The agreement was due to be signed by the Ministers on September 14, 2024, in Luanda. Whether the information is true or not, the recent development between the two Heads of State in Paris (France), where the French President Emmanuel Macron had proposed a three-way meeting, but the two ended up having separate private audiences with the French leader is not helping things out. An indication that the heavy diplomatic and military dispute between their two countries in the east of the DRC, ravaged by decades of violence, remains alive, despite Paris' hopes of seeing them come closer. On the...