GOMA, Congo — Congolese and Rwandan officials met in the United States and agreed on coordinated measures to ease tensions in eastern Congo, where government forces are battling rebels backed by neighboring Rwanda, a joint statement said.
Congolese and Rwandan officials met on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss progress in eastern Congo as peace efforts led by partners including the US and Qatar stalled, the Congolese, Rwandan and US governments said in a statement.
Mineral-rich eastern Congo has been battered by decades of unrest as government forces battle more than 100 armed groups, including the M23 rebel group backed by Rwanda. M23 made unprecedented advances in the region early last year, seizing key cities as they rapidly expanded their presence.
United States President Donald Trump has emerged as a key peace broker as he tries to get the two countries to commit to a permanent ceasefire while also paving the way for American companies to gain access to Congo’s minerals critical to much of the world’s technology, from jets to mobile phones.
At this week’s meeting, both Congo and Rwanda committed to efforts to wrap around a deal brokered by Trump between the two presidents last year.
The sides agreed to specific but unnamed measures to support each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, the statement said. They also agreed to a “scheduled withdrawal of troops and the removal of protective measures from Rwanda” in defined Congolese territory.
Although neither Rwanda nor M23 have publicly acknowledged the presence of Rwandan forces, UN experts have reported evidence of their involvement. Rwanda frames its role as protective measures to protect its territory from the Hutu rebels who led the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
The US negotiators agreed that Congo would make “intense efforts” to neutralize the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), the statement said. Most of the Hutus who fled to the Congo after the massacre formed an armed group.
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