KINSHASA: A recent ceasefire agreed between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda-backed M23 rebels, set to take effect this week, ranks as a tentative step toward peace in the country\u2019s conflict-wracked east.<\/p>\n
Signed on July 19 in Doha, Qatar, the agreement saw the sides commit to a \u201cpermanent ceasefire\u201d and \u201cdialogue and negotiation\u201d to facilitate the \u201cvoluntary\u201d return of refugees and displaced persons.<\/p>\n
But analysts cautioned the peace process in the mineral-rich region remains fragile and lacks sufficient international support.<\/p>\n
Thousands of people have died in fighting over the key towns of Goma and Bukavu, with many thousands displaced and facing a serious humanitarian crisis.<\/p>\n
Eastern DRC, rich in resources and bordering Rwanda, has been riven by conflict for more than 30 years.<\/p>\n
The crisis intensified with the 2021 resurgence of the M23 group and came to a head in January and February as the group seized Goma and Bukavu, setting up parallel administrations in each.<\/p>\n
Kinshasa had previously opposed direct dialogue with the M23. Diplomatic attempts to resolve the crisis, including mediation by Angola, failed.<\/p>\n
However, the surprise intervention of Qatar succeeded in bringing together Presidents Felix Tshisekedi of the DRC and Paul Kagame of Rwanda in Doha in mid-March.<\/p>\n
The pair committed to an immediate and unconditional ceasefire and \u201cthat\u2019s when things really got moving,\u201d said a Rwandan diplomatic source.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis paved the way for negotiations at the technical level with a bilateral track between the DRC and Rwanda, and on the other side an internal track between the DRC and the M23,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen the United States entered the fray and more or less took over the bilateral aspect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seeking foreign support against M23\u2019s rapid advances, Tshisekedi in early March discussed a mining agreement with the United States.<\/p>\n
On June 28, the foreign ministers of the DRC and Rwanda signed a \u201cpeace agreement\u201d in Washington.<\/p>\n
On July 17, the DRC government signed an agreement with US group Kobold Metals, which committed to investing in the digitization of geological data and the development of a lithium mine in southeast DRC.<\/p>\n
The Congolese president then resolved to hold direct talks with M23, having previously refused to do so, leading to the Doha agreement.<\/p>\n
The Doha agreement calls for a roadmap for the \u201cfull restoration of authority\u201d of the DRC government in the east of the country once a peace agreement is signed.<\/p>\n
But a dispute soon arose, when DRC government spokesman Patrick Muyaya spoke of an \u201cimmediate withdrawal\u201d of the M23, which has a political arm, the Congo River Alliance (AFC).<\/p>\n
\u201cNowhere has it been mentioned that the AFC\/M23 must leave liberated areas,\u201d its spokesman, Lawrence Kanyuka, told AFP.<\/p>\n
This verbal escalation \u201cshows that there is the will on both sides to fight,\u201d said Fred Bauma, executive director at the Congolese Ebuteli Institute.<\/p>\n
Without outside pressure \u2014 particularly from the United States and Qatar, and to a lesser extent the European Union \u2014 it will be difficult to end the conflict solely through dialogue, said Bauma.<\/p>\n
Reports by UN experts say Rwanda has sent troops to the DRC to support the M23 and has also provided the group with weapons and technology.<\/p>\n
Kigali has always rejected those accusations, saying it is simply engaged in \u201cdefensive measures\u201d against a Hutu armed group in eastern DRC, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) \u2014 an armed group founded by former Hutu leaders of the 1994 Rwandan genocide of the Tutsi ethnic group.<\/p>\n
The agreement has not yet put an end to the violence. Last Thursday saw at least 11 people killed in fighting between M23 and pro-Kinshasa groups, according to local sources. Both sides blamed the other.<\/p>\n
Kinshasa and the M23 gave themselves until July 29 to implement the declaration with the deal setting an August 8 deadline for formal negotiations on a comprehensive peace accord, to be signed by August 17.<\/p>\n
But analysts see these deadlines as short and it will be tough to meet them in the absence of \u201csufficiently strong American diplomatic pressure,\u201d says Congolese political analyst Christian Moleka.<\/p>\n
He says it could take \u201csix to eight months, or even a year to see the M23 withdraw\u201d completely from areas which it controls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KINSHASA: A recent ceasefire agreed between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda-backed M23 rebels, set to take effect this week, ranks as a tentative step toward peace in the country\u2019s conflict-wracked east. Signed on July 19 in Doha, Qatar, the agreement saw the sides commit to a \u201cpermanent ceasefire\u201d and \u201cdialogue and negotiation\u201d to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":84370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84369","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\/84369","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=84369"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84371,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84369\/revisions\/84371"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}