{"id":53365,"date":"2025-03-12T17:55:16","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T17:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/rwanda-calls-for-genuine-drc-m23-peace-talks-tot-empty-formalities\/"},"modified":"2025-03-15T14:29:57","modified_gmt":"2025-03-15T14:29:57","slug":"rwanda-calls-for-genuine-drc-m23-peace-talks-tot-empty-formalities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/rwanda-calls-for-genuine-drc-m23-peace-talks-tot-empty-formalities\/","title":{"rendered":"Rwanda calls for genuine DRC-M23 peace talks, not empty formalities"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Since late 2021, the M23 rebel group resumed armed struggle, claiming to fight for the rights of Tutsis, Banyamulenge, Hema, and other Kinyarwanda-speaking communities who face persecution, killings, and other abuses due to their ethnicity. However, DRC President F\u00e9lix Tshisekedi has repeatedly sworn not to engage in talks with M23, describing the group as an &#8220;empty shell&#8221; and alleging that its fighters are soldiers from a foreign country.<\/p>\n<p>But in a shift of stance, signaling a change of heart, the Angolan Presidency announced on Tuesday, March 10, 2025, that President Jo\u00e3o Louren\u00e7o would mediate negotiations between the DRC government and M23 representatives in the coming days.<\/p>\n<p>The announcement followed President Tshisekedi\u2019s visit to Angola, aimed at seeking a peaceful resolution to the ongoing conflict in eastern DRC.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking in an interview with Rwanda Broadcasting Agency (RBA), Mukuralinda emphasized that despite DRC\u2019s initial refusal to negotiate with M23, peace talks remain the only viable path to ending the war in eastern Congo, as regional leaders have consistently highlighted.<\/p>\n<p>Mukuralinda noted that Tshisekedi\u2019s agreement to engage in talks is an acknowledgment that African-led solutions are the best approach to resolving African conflicts, with external assistance serving only as a complement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe is now following the path that regional leaders have long advocated, saying, \u2018We know this issue, and this is how it should be resolved,\u2019\u201d Mukuralinda said.<\/p>\n<p>He added: \u201cAnother important point is that he has accepted dialogue as the only way to resolve this issue, as regional leaders\u2014including the President of Rwanda\u2014have affirmed that this conflict can only be solved through negotiations, not military action.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mukuralinda recalled that previous talks failed to yield the desired results due to a lack of commitment from the DRC government.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is time to ensure that these talks are not just for show. And once agreements are reached, there must be mechanisms to monitor their implementation. This is not the first, second, or third time such negotiations are taking place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He stressed that the primary objective of the DRC-M23 negotiations should be to end the ongoing conflict in eastern Congo.<\/p>\n<p>A joint session of heads of state from the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in February declared dialogue as the only path to silencing the guns in eastern Congo. It remains to be seen if the talks will achieve their objective.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-83541 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/drc_and_angola_presidents.jpg\" alt=\"After a meeting between Angolan President Jo\u00e3o Louren\u00e7o and DRC President F\u00e9lix Tshisekedi on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, Angola confirmed that it will host the talks between the Congolese government and the M23 rebel group.\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-83540 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/mukurl-01146.jpg\" alt=\"Rwanda\u2019s Deputy Government Spokesperson, Alain Mukuralinda, has stressed that the upcoming talks between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) government and the M23 rebel group must be meaningful and result-oriented, rather than symbolic gestures.\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rwanda\u2019s Deputy Government Spokesperson, Alain Mukuralinda, has stressed that the upcoming talks between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) government and the M23 rebel group must be meaningful and result-oriented, rather than symbolic gestures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000083539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[72],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-53365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-featured-news-home","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000083539,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mukurl-01146.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mukurl-01146.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mukurl-01146.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mukurl-01146.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mukurl-01146.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mukurl-01146.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000083539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53365"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=53365"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=53365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}