According to a note from the press services of the Presidential Palace, at the high-level meeting, on the sidelines of the United States-Africa summit, proposed by the President, João Lourenço, an assessment was made of the level of implementation of the Roadmap of Luanda on the situation of instability in eastern DR Congo.
"The Heads of State regretted the massacres of civilian populations that had not yet been clarified and highlighted the role of the 'ad-hoc' Verification Mechanism for the purpose of clarifying the facts", underlines the same note.
The next meeting will take place in January, on a date to be announced, in Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi.
Relations between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda have been in turmoil since the mass arrival in eastern DR Congo of Rwandan Hutus accused of massacring Tutsis during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Kinshasa accuses Kigali of supporting the M23, while Rwanda claims that DRCongo supports the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).
The 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.
The M23 has been accused since November 2021 of carrying out attacks against Army positions in North Kivu, despite the Congolese authorities and the M23 having signed a peace agreement in December 2013, after the fighting registered since 2012 with the Army, which had with the support of troops from the United Nations (UN).
UN experts have accused Uganda and Rwanda of backing the rebels, though both countries deny this.
