"After frank and constructive discussions, representatives of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the AFC/M23 have agreed to work towards the conclusion of a truce," the M23 and the DRC government announced in the joint statement broadcast by Congolese television and the M23 spokesperson.
"Both parties reaffirm their commitment to the immediate cessation of hostilities," which they intend to respect "immediately" and "throughout the duration of the negotiations and until their conclusion," according to the statement.
The text does not specify whether this commitment constitutes a declaration of intent or whether it will be formalized immediately.
The dialogue in Qatar, which lasted nearly three weeks, proved largely fruitless, despite some direct meetings between the two delegations.
The statement followed reports on Wednesday by the UN-sponsored Democratic Congolese radio station Okapi, which, citing "sources close to the negotiations", said the rebels had ended their participation in direct talks with the DRC government.
According to these sources, the M23 delegation, led by its president, Bertrand Bisimwa, left Doha on Tuesday to return to Goma, capital of the northeastern province of North Kivu, where the rebel group has had its headquarters since January.
The talks failed due to deep disagreements, particularly over the draft joint communiqué, which was intended to lay the foundation for a constructive dialogue between the two sides, Radio Okapi reported.
Another point of contention is related to the fact that government emissaries allegedly wanted both parties to commit to encouraging armed groups to lay down their weapons, something that the M23 would have opposed, accusing Kinshasa of collaborating with various militias.
The rebels, the sources added, are now making the resumption of negotiations conditional on Kinshasa appointing "delegates capable of making clear decisions and not just experts with a vague mandate".
These are the first face-to-face talks between the two sides since the M23 offensive intensified in January in eastern DRC, where the group has seized large swathes of territory in the neighboring provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu, including their capitals.
DR Congo President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame met in Qatar on March 18 to discuss the conflict.
This meeting took place on the same day that a direct peace dialogue between the parties was scheduled to begin in Angola, which also acted as mediator, but which did not take place after the M23 cancelled its participation following the imposition of sanctions against some of its leaders by the European Union.
The conflict in eastern DR Congo escalated in late January when rebels seized Goma and Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu, both on the border with Rwanda and rich in minerals such as gold and coltan, essential for the technology industry and the manufacture of cellphones.
Since the intensification of the M23 offensive, around 1.2 million people have been displaced in these two provinces, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
In addition, clashes that erupted in Goma and its surroundings left more than 8500 dead in January, according to Democratic Congolese Public Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba at the end of February.
Armed activity by the M23, a group made up mainly of Tutsi victims of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, resumed in North Kivu in November 2021 with lightning attacks against the government army.
The east of the DR Congo has been mired in conflict since 1998, fuelled by rebel militias and the army, despite the presence of the UN peacekeeping mission (Monusco).
