DAKAR, Senegal: Representatives from Congo and Rwanda have signed the text of a peace agreement between the two countries in Washington, according to a joint press release from the nations and the US State Department on Wednesday.
\nCongo has accused Rwanda of backing M23 rebels in the east of the country. UN experts says the rebels are supported by about 4,000 troops from the neighboring nation.
\nThe decades-long conflict escalated in January, when the M23 rebels advanced and seized the strategic Congolese city of Goma, followed by the town of Bukavu in February.
\n\u201cThe Agreement includes provisions on respect for territorial integrity and a prohibition of hostilities; disengagement, disarmament, and conditional integration of non-state armed groups,\u201d said the statement posted to the State Department\u2019s website.
\nThe agreement signed included a commitment to respecting territorial integrity and the conditional integration of non-state armed groups. Both sides also committed to a ministerial-level meeting next week and invited the leaders of both countries to attend.
\nThis is not the first time peace talks have been held. Talks hosted by Qatar in April fell apart.
\nCorneille Nangaa, leader of the Congo River Alliance, a coalition of rebel groups, told The Associated Press in April that international sanctions and Congo\u2019s proposed minerals deal with the United States in search of peace would not stop the fighting.
\nM23 is one of about 100 armed groups that have been vying for a foothold in mineral-rich eastern Congo near the border with Rwanda. The conflict has created one of the world\u2019s worst humanitarian crises and has displaced more than 7 million people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DAKAR, Senegal: Representatives from Congo and Rwanda have signed the text of a peace agreement between the two countries in Washington, according to a joint press release from the nations and the US State Department on Wednesday. Congo has accused Rwanda of backing M23 rebels in the east of the country. UN experts says the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":82595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82579"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82597,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82579\/revisions\/82597"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}