"I want to praise President Lourenço's work in mediating the conflict situation", said Cyril Ramaphosa, in the public speech opening the council's work, on the sidelines of the African Union (AU) summit in Addis Ababa, stressing that, after , will hear from the Angolan President the status of the contacts made.
João Lourenço was mandated by regional partners to try to mediate the conflict in the east of the neighboring country, with the Kinshasa authorities accusing Rwanda of being behind the armed insurgency and the rebels of the March 23 Movement (M23).
The Angolan head of state "has been talking to everyone", seeking to "fulfill the objective which is to silence the weapons on the continent", explained Ramaphosa.
The African Union has a security force in eastern DRCOngo that does not include Rwanda, despite having one of the largest armies in the region, because Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi has accused Kigali of supporting the rebels.
The objective of the negotiations carried out by Angola is the “complete restriction of the escalation of the conflict”, explained Ramaphosa, who admitted a serious situation in the continent due to the multiple national and interstate conflicts.
“The current situation of conflict is even more worrying than in the recent past”, admitted Ramaphosa, who defended more efforts by the AU countries to “reinforce collaboration to solve the problems” of security in the continent.
In that sense, the council is carrying out a “security situation assessment” and defining a concrete plan of action.
In the case of the DRCongo, the “political will of all parties”, the government of the DRCongo, the region, the African Union and the international community are the “key for the implementation of measures” that lead to peace.
The South African President also defended that the AU must combat illegal immigration, money laundering, exploitation of natural wealth, processes that undermine national authorities.
The M23 was created in 2012 as a dissidence of the defunct National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP), a group of rebels mainly of Rwandan origin who fought the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) in the country and later joined the Army of the DRCongo following the agreement of March 23, 2009, which gives the name to the group.
Thus, the rebels of the newly founded M23 deserted the army to renegotiate that peace agreement and improve their living conditions.
East DR Congo has been mired in conflict fueled by rebel militias and the army for over two decades, despite the presence of the United Nations peacekeeping mission, with more than 16,000 uniformed troops on the ground.
Angola has mediated peace talks between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
