M23 rebellion in DR Congo: Angola announces ceasefire between Kinshasa and Kigali

Angola, which is mediating in the conflict, announced that a ceasefire agreement had been reached on Tuesday July 30 between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, which supports the M23 rebellion in North Kivu.

A ceasefire agreement has been reached between Kinshasa and Kigali in the conflict between the Congolese army and the Rwandan-backed M23 rebellion in North Kivu, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the Angolan mediator announced on Tuesday July 30.

“The second ministerial meeting between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, held here in Luanda under the mediation of Angola, resulted in the establishment of a ceasefire that will take effect at midnight on August 4, 2024”, said the Angolan presidency.

Since the end of 2021, the armed forces of the DRC and the rebels of the M23 (“March 23rd Movement”), a Rwandan-backed movement that has taken up arms again after several years of dormancy, have been clashing in North Kivu. Large swathes of the region are in the hands of the insurgents.

The ceasefire will be supervised by the “ad hoc verification mechanism”, which will be strengthened, Luanda said, referring to the pacification system already created in response to the violence.

The agreement follows a 15-day humanitarian truce that expires on August 3, and commits the belligerents “to silence their weapons and provide humanitarian personnel with unhindered access to vulnerable populations.”

The first two weeks of the “humanitarian truce” were announced by Washington on July 5. However, this has not been respected in some areas. In particular, four young civilians, including two children, were killed on July 15 in a bombardment in Bweremana, a town in the Masisi region located some fifteen kilometers west of Goma, the provincial capital.