Angola proposes new DR Congo ceasefire

KINSHASA, DR CONGO -Angola has called on the warring sides in eastern DR Congo to respect a ceasefire from next week, as a UN team landed Thursday in a city under the M23 armed group's control for a year.

The ceasefire, beginning on February 18, has still to be agreed by the Congolese government and the M23 but would be a major step after months of diplomatic efforts to end the conflict amid ongoing fighting.

The resource-rich eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has been mired in unabated violence for 30 years by scores of armed groups.

The region, which borders Rwanda and Burundi, has been targeted by the Rwanda-backed M23 since the group's resurgence in 2021.

Angola, in recent weeks, has resumed its mediation efforts and made its ceasefire proposal public overnight.

It follows the announcement last week that the United Nations would soon send peacekeepers to the eastern DRC to help enforce any ceasefire.

A senior M23 official interviewed by AFP Thursday said the anti-governmental group was "willing" to observe a halt in fighting on condition that the Congolese armed forces "stop shooting at us".

Contacted by AFP, the government in Kinshasa was not able to immediately respond.

Half a dozen ceasefires and truces have been signed -- and broken -- since late 2021, when the M23 again took up arms with the support of Rwanda and its army.

M23 fighters seized the North Kivu provincial capital of Goma in January last year as part of a lightning offensive across the country's east that left thousands dead.

Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province, fell the following month.

Since the sharp escalation in fighting, peace efforts led by Qatar and the United States have sought to end the crisis, leading to the signing of two separate accords.

Qatar has been mediating between the Congolese government and the M23 for several months, and a commitment towards a ceasefire was signed in July.

In a parallel effort, the DRC and Rwanda formalised a US-brokered peace deal in December in Washington.

However, the agreements have not so far succeeded in stopping the clashes.

GOMA AIRPORT

Talks are now being steered by the African Union (AU), which appointed Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe to lead the mediation. He, in turn, has included Angolan President Joao Lourenco in the negotiations.

In late 2024, a previous mediation effort led by the Angolan president at the AU's request collapsed before a scheduled summit in Luanda, which was meant to bring together the Congolese and Rwandan presidents.

On Monday, DRC President Felix Tshisekedi, who has regularly travelled to Luanda in recent months to meet Lourenco, met Gnassingbe and former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo in the Angolan capital.

The peace accords provide for the United Nations mission in DRC, (MONUSCO), to monitor events on the ground with a view to implementing a more permanent ceasefire.

The mission is expected to be deployed in the coming weeks in Uvira, a city on the Burundi border that the M23 seized in December before withdrawing under pressure from the United States.

The closest UN peacekeeping base to Uvira is in Goma, whose international airport has been closed since the city was seized.

The UN earlier this week said it had sought "security guarantees" from the warring parties to enable its soldiers to use the key airport.

On Thursday, the acting head of the UN mission in the DRC landed in Goma.

Vivian van de Perre touched down in the city in a UN helicopter in what the mission said was "an important milestone after a prolonged interruption of air access".

Van de Perre said in a statement that she was going to Goma "to support preparations for the monitoring and verification of the ceasefire".