M23 rebels sitting on a truck escorting captured FDLR members to Rwanda for repatriation, at the Goma-Gisenyi Grande Barrier border crossing
March 13 — Direct peace talks between the Democratic Republic of Congo and M23 rebels will begin in the Angolan capital on March 18, Angola’s presidency said in a statement.
Angola has been trying to mediate a lasting ceasefire and de-escalate tensions between Congo and neighbouring Rwanda, which has been accused of backing the Tutsi-led rebel group. Rwanda denies those allegations.
Congo’s government has repeatedly refused to hold talks with M23 and on Tuesday it said only that it had taken note of the Angolan initiative.
On Wednesday Tina Salama, spokesperson for D. R. Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi, told media that the government had received an invitation from Angola but did not confirm its participation.
M23 leader, Bertrand Bisimwa in a post on X boasted of forcing Tshisekedi to the negotiating table, calling it “the only civilised option to resolve the current crisis” that has intensified dramatically since January.
The rebels have seized east Congo’s two biggest cities since January in an escalation of a long-running conflict rooted in the spillover into Congo of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide and the struggle for control of Congo’s vast mineral resources.
Congo’s government has said at least 7,000 people have died in the fighting since January. At least 600,000 people have been displaced by the fighting since November, according to the U.N. humanitarian affairs office.
Congo’s neighbours, including South Africa, Burundi, and Uganda have troops in East Congo, raising fears of an all-out regional war reminiscent of the Congo wars of the 1990s and early 2000s which killed millions.
Meanwhile the Southern African Development Community (SADC) said on Thursday that a summit of regional heads of state had terminated the mandate of its troop deployment in the Democratic Republic of Congo and decided on a “phased withdrawal”.
“Summit terminated the Mandate of SAMIDRC and directed the commencement of a phased withdrawal of SAMIDRC troops from the DRC,” the Southern African bloc said in a communique after the summit.
The 16-member SADC deployed its mission in Congo in December 2023 to help the Congolese army fight rebel groups. It extended its mandate late last year but the mission has suffered losses in 2025.
