Addis Ababa - The Angolan Head of State João Lourenço proposed on Friday, in Addis Ababa, a direct dialogue between his counterparts from Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to end the conflict between the two neighboring countries.
João Lourenço was speaking at the opening of the extraordinary summit on the situation in the DRC, held on his initiative to identify measures leading to the resumption of the pacification process in the east of this country neighboring Angola.
In his intervention, he clarified that he decided to invite the African heads of State and Government to this meeting “in an attempt to see if we can get the DRC pacification process on track”.
He highlighted that this process was very close to achieving progress, at least in relation to one of the negative forces acting in the DRC, namely the M23, but which, regrettably, registered a major setback.
“Regrettably, we saw a major setback that led to the resumption of hostilities with all the resulting consequences for both the local populations and the country’s economy,” he said.
Faced with this regression, he continued, there are fears that it could reach dangerous proportions that would end up affecting not only the two neighboring countries but an entire vast region, which encompasses not only the Great Lakes Region but also SADC, since the DRC is also part of this regional bloc.
“This meeting is to see what steps we can take towards renegotiating a ceasefire between the DRC authorities and the M23 and trying to bring the heads of state of Rwanda and DRC into direct dialogue, if possible,” he insisted.
He also defended the need to make efforts to improve relations between the brotherly peoples of DRC and Rwanda. IZ/ADR/DOJ
