(Reuters) -Rwandan-backed M23 rebels said on Monday they would send a delegation to peace talks with Democratic Republic of Congo’s government expected to begin on Tuesday in Angola’s capital.
The five-member delegation is expected to leave for Luanda on Monday for dialogue at the request of Angolan authorities,” Lawrence Kanyuka, a spokesperson for the AFC rebel alliance that includes the M23, said in a post on X.
On Sunday, President Felix Tshisekedi’s office said Kinshasa would also send representatives to Luanda, reversing the government’s long-standing vow not to negotiate with the group.
Angola has been trying to mediate a lasting ceasefire and lower frictions between Congo and neighbouring Rwanda, which the U.N. and others say has been providing arms and sending soldiers to fight with the Tutsi-led rebel group.
Rwanda says its forces are acting in self defence against the Congolese army and militias hostile to Kigali.
The conflict, which has blighted eastern Congo for decades, is rooted in the spillover into Congo of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide and the struggle for control of Congo’s vast mineral resources.
It escalated this year, with M23 gaining ground it had never controlled before, including east Congo’s two biggest cities and a host of smaller localities.
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.
(Reporting by Congo newsroom; Writing by Robbie Corey-Boulet; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
