According to a note from the Angolan Presidency, the contact between João Lourenço and Paul Kagame served to make "an assessment of the situation on the ground, mainly of the commitments assumed by each of the parties within the scope of the Luanda Summit".
The two heads of state also "assessed together perspectives for the operationalization of all the agreed mechanisms, so that there is again peace and security in the eastern region of the DRC", adds the note from Luanda.
The March 23 Movement (M23) rebel group, whose clashes with the army of the Democratic Republic of Congo have already caused hundreds of deaths this year, expressed this Wednesday "ready to withdraw" from the territories it occupies and start a peace dialogue.
The M23 requested a "meeting" with the joint military force of the East African Community (EAC, in its acronym in English), which began to be deployed to the east of the DRC, as well as with the mediator of the regional bloc, the former president Kenyan Uhuru Kenyatta, who heads the peace process between the Congolese government and armed groups active in that part of the country.
The group, considered terrorist by Kinshasa and which has continued its attacks since the start of the first round of peace talks in Nairobi, last April, has so far remained outside the process, by imposition of the Congolese government.
The group also confirmed accepting the "ceasefire" demanded last November 23 at a summit in Luanda sponsored by the President, João Lourenço, African Union mediator for the dispute between the DRC and Rwanda, which Kinshasa accuses of supporting the M23.
Although Kigali vehemently denies such support, a UN expert report released in August confirmed such cooperation.
At the Luanda summit, the Congolese President, Felix Tshisekedi, and the Rwandan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vincent Viruta, who represented President Paul Kagame, called for a cessation of hostilities from 25 November, but the fighting never effectively ceased.
At least 272 people were killed in an M23 attack last week in the town of Kishishe in Rutshuru territory in North Kivu province, according to the Congolese government.
The rebels estimate, however, the number of civilians killed at eight, due to "stray bullets".
M23 was created in 2012, when Congolese soldiers revolted over the loss of power of their leader, Bosco Ntaganda, accused by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of war crimes; denouncing several violations of the peace agreement of March 23, 2009, which gives the name to the movement.
Among other conditions, the group demands the renegotiation of the agreement signed by the Congolese guerrilla Congrès National pour la Défense du Peuple (CNDP) for its integration into the army, in order to improve its conditions.
The CNDP, made up mainly of Tutsis (a group that was the main victim of the 1994 Rwandan genocide), was formed in 2006 to - among other objectives - fight the Hutus of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), founded in 2000 by leaders associated with the genocide and other Rwandan exiles in the DRC to regain political power in Rwanda.
After years of inactivity, the M23 resumed fighting last March with the Armed Forces of the DR Congo (FARDC), causing the displacement of at least 340,000 people in the east of the country, according to the UN.
After months of truce, fighting resumed in October and the M23 advanced to the siege of Goma, the capital of North Kivu – less than 100 kilometers from the Rwandan capital, Kigali, on the other side of the border – which the rebels took in 2012.
East DR Congo has been mired in conflict for more than two decades, fueled by rebel militias and the Congolese army, despite the presence of the United Nations peacekeeping mission (MONUSCO).
