However, shortly before this note, Lawrence Kanyuka, spokesperson for the Congo River Alliance (AFC), the platform to which the M23 is affiliated, rejected the rebels’ participation in the peace talks.
The AFC/M23 had said this Monday that it would attend the meeting with a five-person delegation, but the statement released last night asserts that they will not attend the talks due to actions that sabotage efforts to silence the guns.
“The Congo River Alliance (AFC/M23) expresses its deep regret at observing that certain international institutions are deliberately working to sabotage peace efforts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and make long-awaited talks impossible,” the statement said.
The message refers to the “successive sanctions” imposed on the group’s members, including those adopted by the European Union against several of its leaders on the eve of the Luanda talks, which they stated “seriously jeopardize direct dialogue and prevent any progress.”
In this regard, they added that these actions reinforce the “warmongering policy” of DRC President Félix Tshisekedi.
The statement also denounced the “indiscriminate bombing of densely populated areas” carried out by the Congolese Armed Forces using planes and drones.
Kinshasa had categorically refused to hold direct talks with the M23, considering them to be puppets of Rwanda and a terrorist group; However, the advance into the east of the country and the conquest of major cities in North and South Kivu provinces made this step necessary.
In addition, a joint summit of the East African Communities (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), held on February 8, “ordered the resumption of direct negotiations and dialogue with all state and non-state (military and non-military) parties, including the M23, and within the framework of the Luanda/Nairobi process.”
The Congolese government accepted the Angolan mediator’s invitation to meet directly with the rebels, but once again, at the threshold of the decisive moment, everything fell apart.
Something similar happened on December 15 of last year, when the Rwandan delegation was absent from the tripartite conference that was to sign a peace agreement with the DRC, and made progress conditional on direct talks in Kinshasa with the M23.
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