Qatari mediators hosted a second round of talks on Friday between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda, and separately met representatives of the Rwandan-backed rebellion waging an insurgency in eastern DRC, four sources revealed.
DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame met last week in Doha for their first talks since M23 rebels stepped up an offensive in January.
The talks between Tshisekedi and Kagame, and their subsequent call for a ceasefire, provided a glimmer of hope for a de-escalation of eastern DRC’s biggest conflict in decades. But M23 dismissed those calls, saying peace could only be achieved through direct talks with Kinshasa and continued its offensive with the capture of a strategic town.
M23 representatives met Qatari mediators in Doha on Friday and did not hold talks with the DRC or Rwandan officials also in town, said the sources, two from the DRC government and two from the rebels.
The content of the discussions was not clear. Qatar’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ceasefire Signed Between Sadc & M23 rebels
The DRC, UN and Western governments say Rwanda is supporting the rebels by sending troops and arms.
Kigali has denied helping M23, saying its forces are acting in self-defence against the DRC’s army and ethnic Hutu militiamen linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide that killed about one million people, mostly ethnic Tutsis.
The conflict has raised fears of a wider regional war, with the armies of the DRC, Rwanda and Burundi having participated in the fighting.
Farther north, Uganda also has thousands of troops in eastern DRC. They are helping Kinshasa fight another militia but are viewed with suspicion by many Congolese given Uganda’s intervention in past wars against the DRC’s government and accusations by UN experts last year that Kampala was providing support to M23.
Uganda denied the UN experts’ allegations.
In a sign of possible diplomatic strain, a DRC general on Friday expressed “indignation” about social media comments by the head of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) last weekend that threatened to seize a city in northern DRC.
“UPDF will not oppose M23’s seizure of Kisangani, but they better move quickly otherwise we will do it ourselves,” Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who is President Yoweri Museveni’s son and regularly makes inflammatory social media posts, had written.
Gen Jacques Ychaligonza, who is in charge of operations and intelligence for the DRC’s military, was asked by reporters about Kainerugaba’s comments after a meeting with a Ugandan counterpart in the city of Bunia.
“If it is true that this is the Ugandan military chief’s account. We have expressed our indignation,” he said. “We told them we are not at all happy.”
UPDF spokesperson Chris Magezi said Ugandan forces had no ill-will towards the DRC and the two countries were working together closely.
“The X platform is not an official channel, so people should not take it seriously,” he said.
In an interview, the DRC’s foreign minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner said the joint DRC-Ugandan operations against the Allied Democratic Forces, an Islamic State affiliate, were going well.
“We are happy that we have good communication channels with the UPDF that enable us also to react to dynamics on the ground,” she said.
