Madrid 13 (Europa Press) –
The Río Congo Alliance, headed by the March 23 movement (M23), has urged the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (RDC), Félix Tshisekedi, to express “publicly and unequivocally” his commitment to establish direct negotiations with the rebels in the mediation process promoted by the Government of Angola.
The M23 has “positively” welcomed the announcement of the Angolaña presidency about the celebration of peace negotiations on March 18 with the RDC government, but has been skeptical with the position of Kinshasa after several negatives to address the conflict directly with the group.
“The Congo River (AFC/M23) Alliance greets the efforts that João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço, president of Angola, performs to promote peace and stability in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (RDC) and the region of the great lakes,” said the M23 spokesman, Lawrence Kanyuka.
Kanyuka has indicated that “there is no military solution to the current crisis” in RDC that “can effectively address the deep causes” of the conflict and recalled that Kinshasa has refused “repeatedly” to enter into dialogue with the M23.
“This means that it will never negotiate with our organization,” he said, adding that the statements of the RDC government spokesman, Patrick Mostaya, about the conflict in the east of the country demonstrate the “lack of will” of its president, Félix Tshisekedi, about the Angolan initiative.
Likewise, Luanda has urged to formally notify all parties on the initiative, since the M23 “has not yet received any official notification and is based solely on a statement published on the Facebook page of the Angolan presidency.”
The M23, mainly made up of Congolese Tutsis, has achieved important territorial advances during the last weeks, an offensive that has led RDC to directly accuse Rwanda of deploying troops in its territory to support the operations of the M23, in the midst of regional calls to a high fire and a peace process.
For their part, the Ruandesa authorities accuse the RDC government of repressing the Congolese tutsis, which are a minority in the east of the African country, with support from armed groups such as the democratic forces for the liberation of Rwanda (FDLR)-founded by Hutus escaped after the genocide in Rwanda in 1994- and other local militias.
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