Angolan President João Lourenço held urgent telephone talks with his Congolese and Rwandan counterparts on Saturday, following disagreements stemming from the latest round of negotiations in Luanda, which concluded a week ago, according to the Congolese media Actualité.
The consultations aimed to address the differences following Congolese Prime Minister Judith Suminwa's announcement on Friday that an agreement in principle had been reached for the withdrawal of over 4,000 Rwandan soldiers from the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This claim was subsequently refuted by Kigali, which labeled Suminwa's statement as inaccurate.
Lourenço's mediation efforts aim to find a resolution to the ongoing conflict in eastern DRC, which has been plagued by regular attacks from armed groups, including the M23 rebel group. The Congolese government accuses Rwanda of supporting the M23, while Kigali denies its involvement and accuses Kinshasa of providing aid to the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), which operates from Congolese territory.