Congo and M23 rebel group will hold peace talks on Tuesday, mediator Angola says

DAKAR, Senegal — The government of Congo will hold peace talks next week in Angola with the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group that has captured key areas of Congo’s mineral-rich east, mediator Angola announced Wednesday.

A statement from Angolan President João Lourenço's office said the parties would begin “direct peace negotiations” in the Angolan capital, Luanda.

Angola has acted as a mediator in the conflict in eastern Congo, which escalated in late January when the Rwanda-backed rebels advanced and took control of the strategic eastern Congo city of Goma. In February, M23 seized Bukavu, eastern Congo's second biggest city.

Congo President Felix Tshisekedi was in Angola on Tuesday to discuss the possibility of peace talks.

“Following the diligence carried out by Angolan mediation in the conflict affecting the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the Government of the Republic of Angola makes public that delegations from the Democratic Republic of Congo and M23 will begin direct peace negotiations, on March 18, in the city of Luanda,” Lourenço’s office said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Congolese government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“We acknowledge and look forward to the implementation of this Angolan mediation initiative,” Tina Salama, the spokesperson for President Tshisekedi said on social media on Tuesday.

The announcement comes after several canceled peace talks hosted by Angola that had previously excluded M23 and instead focused on their Rwandan backers.

Peace talks between Congo and Rwanda were unexpectedly canceled in December after Rwanda made the signing of a peace agreement conditional on a direct dialogue between Congo and the M23 rebels, which Congo refused.

M23 is one of about 100 armed groups that have been vying for a foothold in mineral-rich eastern Congo near the border with Rwanda, in a conflict that has created one of the world’s most significant humanitarian crises. More than 7 million people have been displaced.

The rebels are supported by about 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, according to U.N. experts, and at times have vowed to march as far as Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, over 1,000 miles away.

The U.N. Human Rights Council last month launched a commission to investigate atrocities, including allegations of rape and killing akin to “summary executions” by both sides.