"We will fight like we have nothing to lose to secure the future of our country," Corneille Nangaa, leader of the Congo River Alliance that includes the Rwandan-backed M23 rebel group, told The Associated Press in an interview.
Nangaa and other rebel leaders are the target of a 5 million dollars bounty placed on them by the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The rebel leader dismissed comments made last week by Democratic Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi that his country, whose mineral resources are essential to much of the world's technology, is seeking a mineral partnership with the United States.
The U.S. government has not publicly commented on any such deal, which local observers say could be similar to the Trump administration's recent offer to Ukraine to help end its war with Russia.
"This problem can be better resolved by interested Congolese democrats, not by foreigners with different geopolitical agendas," Nangaa stressed in the interview.
"Attempting to bribe with minerals could undermine the credibility of the US," he stressed.
The rebel leader also rejected the outcome of last week's meeting in Doha between the presidents of the DR Congo and Rwanda, mediated by the emir of Qatar, saying that such an attempt to achieve peace without the involvement of his group would fail.
According to him, the rebels can only talk to the government in Kinshasa if it acknowledges their grievances and the root causes of the conflict.
"Everything that concerns us and is done without us is against us," Nangaa said.
The Doha meeting took place on the same day that a direct peace dialogue between the DR Congo and the M23 was scheduled to begin in Angola, also a mediator, but it did not take place after the rebel group cancelled its participation following the imposition of sanctions against some of its leaders by the European Union.
Angola announced on Monday that its leader and acting chairman of the African Union, João Lourenço, would withdraw as chief mediator to focus on overall peace and security in Africa.
Also on Monday, the M23 said that the planned withdrawal from the strategic town of Walikale, which the rebels captured last week, was delayed because government forces were still allegedly positioned in the area with attack drones.
M23 spokesman Lawrence Kanyuka said their presence "undermines" peace initiatives.
Holding Walikale gives the rebels control of a road linking four eastern Congolese provinces – North Kivu, South Kivu, Tshopo and Maniema – effectively cutting off the Democratic Republic of the Congo's army from its positions.
Since the conflict escalated in January, more than 850,000 people have been displaced in South Kivu alone, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
Furthermore, fighting in and around Goma (the capital of North Kivu) has left more than 8500 people dead since January, according to the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Minister of Public Health, Samuel Roger Kamba, who said in late February.
The M23, a group made up mainly of Tutsis who were victims of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, resumed armed activity in the province in November 2021 with lightning attacks against the Democratic Republic of the Congolese army.
Since then, it has advanced on several fronts, raising fears of a possible regional war.
Since 1998, eastern DR Congo has been mired in conflict fuelled by rebel militias and the army, despite the presence of the UN peacekeeping mission (MONUSCO).
