DRC and M23 rebels will start negotiations directly next week, mediator Angola | Conflict news

A spokesman for the President of DRC Felix Tshmite Reuters News Agency said they received an invitation to negotiations.

Support of the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda M23 rebels Next week, the mediator announced Angola.

On Wednesday, the statement from the office of President Yoao Lourencon, on March 18, said that “direct peace talks” in Angolan capital Luanda will begin.

Angola previously acted as a mediator in the Eastern DRC confrontation, where M23 in the late January was in the strategic East Congo Goma. In February, M23 seized Bukavu, the second largest city in the Eastern Congo.

Rwanda supports the M23 armed group in the conflict, which is rooted in the 1994 genocide’s 1994 genocide in the control of the extensive mineral resources of DRC.

DRC President Felix Tshizekedi discussed the possibility of negotiations in Angola on Tuesday and his words told Reuters on Wednesday that they did not say that the government was invited from Angola, but will not participate in the talks.

M23 leader Bertrand Bisimwa called the rebels to the negotiation table, called “the only civil selection to resolve the current crisis for decades.”

The government has been killed at least 7,000 people in the conflict since January.

Last week, the United Nations Refugee Agency said about 80,000 people fled from the country due to armed conflict. Since January, 61,000 neighboring Burundi, Assistant Principal Principal Principal of the Agency, said Patrick Saa.

M23 is one of about 100 armed groups to manage resources in Eastern Congo, which is large resources of strategic minerals such as Coltan, Cobalt, Copper and Lithium.

The Neighbors of DRC, including South Africa, Burunda, East Congo, in the early 1990s and early 2000s, have soldiers in the Eastern Kongo, increasing the fear of a comprehensive regional war.