Mini-Summit Discusses Peace Efforts for East Democratic Republic of Congo
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — Angolan President Joao Lourenco hosted a mini-summit in Addis Ababa on Friday in a bid to revive peace efforts for the violence-wracked eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The meeting, on the eve of a two-day AU summit in the Ethiopian capital, follows an escalation of fighting in the region in recent days. Diplomatic efforts have so far failed to quell the conflict between the M23 rebel group and the Congolese army in the mineral-rich east of the vast central African nation. DRC President Felix Tshisekedi was among those taking part in Friday’s closed-door meeting, his office said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter. “This mini-summit discussed, among other things, the return to a constructive and reconciliatory dialogue between the DRC and Rwanda, the immediate cessation of hostilities, the immediate withdrawal of the M23 from occupied areas and the launch of a process to contain this movement,” the presidency said. Kinshasa, along with the United Nations and Western countries, accuses DR Congo’s much smaller neighbor Rwanda of backing the rebels, a …