According to Angop, the visit is part of the diplomatic efforts aimed at ensuring compliance with the new ceasefire agreement signed on 30 July in Luanda between the DR Congo and Rwanda, under the mediation of João Lourenço.
The day before, João Lourenço attended the inauguration of his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame, in Kigali, with whom he met on the sidelines of the inauguration, discussing issues such as bilateral cooperation and current African affairs, with a focus on the relationship between Rwanda and the DR Congo and the ceasefire in the conflict in eastern Congo, according to the presidency's press service.
In his first official speech after taking office for a new five-year term, Kagame, quoted by Jornal de Angola, thanked the Presidents of Angola, João Lourenço, and Kenya, William Ruto, for their efforts to bring about peace, stressing that this is a priority for Rwanda and that all parties involved must take steps in this direction.
Before this visit, João Lourenço, in his capacity as African Union (AU) mediator in the conflict, spoke by telephone with Kagame and Tshisekedi about consolidating the peace process and met in Luanda last week with his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa, who also thanked João de Lourenço for his efforts in seeking peace in the region.
The DR Congo accuses Rwanda of supporting the M23 rebel movement in order to seize mineral resources in the east of the country, while the armed group claims to be defending a threatened part of the Tutsi population living in the province of North Kivu.
Last Tuesday, Félix Tshisekedi accused his predecessor, Joseph Kabila, of preparing an "insurrection" and of coordinating or belonging to the Alliance Française du Congo (AFC), a political-military movement that includes the Movimento 23 de Março (M23).
"The AFC is him," Tshisekedi assured, without giving further details, in this interview given to Congolese radio Top Congo, in Belgium, where he is undergoing medical treatment, and published by the Presidency of the Democratic Republic of Congo on its X social network account.
The M23 is one of more than 100 armed groups active in the east of the DR Congo, which is very rich in gold, rare metals essential to the world's largest technology companies, and several other mineral resources.
The Congo River Alliance, a political-military movement that includes armed groups such as the M23, congratulated on Thursday all those involved in seeking a peaceful resolution to the crisis in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, following the announcement of a ceasefire between Rwanda and the DR Congo mediated by Angola, but stressed that it is not "automatically bound by the conclusions of meetings to which it was not invited", calling for direct dialogue with the Government in Kinshasa.
