KINSHASA/LUANDA, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- A peace summit scheduled for Sunday to address conflicts in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was called off at the last minute due to a tough negotiation standoff.
Meanwhile, tensions have been on the rise on the ground with ongoing clashes between government military and rebels.
PEACE TALKS ABORTED
Angolan President Joao Lourenco was set to host DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame, in a bid to ease tensions gripping the eastern DRC by securing an agreement supposed to be signed by the three heads of state.
The summit was planned as part of the "Luanda Process," a peace initiative launched in 2022 and endorsed by the African Union, to accelerate regional stabilization.
Tshisekedi arrived in the Angolan capital of Luanda early Sunday for the summit and met with Lourenco and former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, broker of the "Nairobi Process," a parallel peace mechanism led by the East African Community (EAC).
However, Kagame did not board a flight to Luanda and walked away from the summit.
"The agreement has been 99 percent negotiated," Angolan Foreign Minister Tete Antonio told the press after the tripartite summit was called off.
"One of the parties requested the postponement of the summit until there is a common language," said Antonio.
NEGOTIATION STANDOFF
The peace agreement was aborted due to a tough negotiation standoff.
According to Rwanda's Foreign Ministry, the ministerial meeting in Luanda on Saturday failed to reach a consensus between Rwanda and the DRC regarding a commitment to direct talks with the March 23 Movement (M23) rebel group.
"The DRC had accepted the principle of a dialogue with the M23, before surprising us with a refusal on the eve of the summit," said Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe.
The eastern DRC continues to face instability due to the M23 rebel group, which has been advancing and seizing large areas of territory. The DRC government accuses neighboring Rwanda of providing military support to the M23, an allegation Kigali denies.
While denying ties to the M23, Rwanda has accused the DRC military of collaborating with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, a Rwandan rebel group whose members are blamed for the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
"The ministers negotiated late into yesterday, but they could not reach an agreement on all points," said Antonio, adding that Sunday's summit "would therefore not have resulted in an agreement."
However, according to Kinshasa, the ministerial meeting on Saturday ended in a "deadlock" after Rwanda ambushed with a last-minute condition, which demanded that direct dialogue with the M23 precede the signing of any agreement.
"We are not going to talk directly with a terrorist group," DRC Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner told a press briefing late Sunday in Kinshasa. "If the M23 group wants to have any hope of being able to express its grievances and concerns, it will only be within the framework of the Nairobi Process."
TENSIONS RUNNING HIGH
Also on Sunday, the M23 rebels reportedly took control of the town of Matembe in the eastern North Kivu province, the epicenter of hostilities.
The locality is considered strategic for the DRC military to stop the advancement of the rebellion towards the northern part of North Kivu and potentially the neighboring Ituri and Tshopo provinces.
As part of the peace process, a ceasefire agreement took effect on Aug. 4. However, clashes between the DRC military and the M23 have intensified since late October. The M23, which did not sign the ceasefire agreement, has expanded its territorial control.
"The M23 … has consolidated its civilian and military occupation in North Kivu. Today, it controls an area twice as large as in 2012," Bintou Keita, special representative of the UN Secretary-General in the DRC, told the UN Security Council meeting.
The M23 is a group of former rebels of the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) and got its name from the March 23, 2009 agreement signed between the CNDP and the DRC government.
In November 2012, the M23 occupied Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu, for 10 days.
After being defeated by the DRC army, the M23 signed a peace accord with the government in December 2013, in which it agreed to demobilize its fighters and transform itself into a political party. M23 leaders, however, have since accused the government of failing to respect that agreement.
M23 insurgency resurfaced in late 2021. According to the United Nations, nearly 6.4 million people have been displaced in the DRC due to armed conflicts and natural disasters. ■