Harare - The Angolan Head of State, João Lourenço, highlighted on Friday the holding of a new ministerial meeting on the latest peace proposal between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda,in Luanda, on August 20.
oão Lourenço was speaking at the summit of the Troika of the SADC Organ for Cooperation in the Areas of Politics, Defence and Security, held in the Zimbabwean capital, in the presence of his counterpart from the DRC, Félix Tshisekedi.
He explained that the next ministerial meeting will discuss and negotiate the terms of the new proposal for a peace agreement, to be signed in the presence of the three heads of state, namely Angola, DRC and Rwanda.
According to the Angolan statesman, this understanding resulted from the latest actions carried out as part of the efforts to pacify the east of the DRC, which culminated in his trip to talk to his counterparts Paul Kagame and Félix Tshisekedi, respectively, in Kigali and Kinshasa, on the 11th and 12th of this month.
João Lourenço indicated that, in the conversation he had with the two heads of state, he realized that there was 'a great political will to resolve the conflict through negotiation', which favoured the scheduling of the meeting on 20 August.
He recalled that, prior to this initiative, a first ministerial meeting between the DRC and Rwanda took place on 21 March 2024 in Luanda, when the parties prioritized, among other aspects, the cessation of hostilities and a ceasefire, followed by a process of disengagement of forces.
The meeting also agreed on the need to draw up a Plan for the Neutralization of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and the adoption of confidence-building measures between the two parties, he said.
At the second ministerial meeting, he continued, the DRC and Rwanda agreed, on July 30, 2024, in Luanda, on the entry into force of a ceasefire, starting on August 4, 2024.
An agreement was also reached on the imperative need to implement the FDLR Neutralization Plan, the disengagement of forces and the strengthening of the Ad-hoc Verification Mechanism with the integration of intelligence experts from the three countries with the possibility of associating other actors.
Following these decisions, he said, the intelligence experts met in Luanda on the 7th and 8th of this month and jointly developed the Harmonised Plan on the Neutralisation of FDLR.
There was, however, an impasse in the preparation of the Plan for the Disengagement of Forces in the Operational Theater, he lamented.
'This situation is at the center of our attention and, therefore, we will continue to work with the two parties in the search for an understanding on the disengagement of forces,' he concluded.
President João Lourenço has been in Harare since early afternoon on Friday to participate in the 44th ordinary summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), to be held this Saturday in the Zimbabwean capital. IZ/DOJ
