The tripartite mediation planned in the Angolan capital Luanda to bring peace to the volatile east of the Democratic Republic of Congo did not finally take place as planned.
However, according to Kinshasa, the Congolese and Angolan presidents have started bilateral talks, prior to a meeting extended to the respective delegations.
The main stumbling block lies in the dispute between the DRC and Rwanda concerning the situation in the east of the country.
On Saturday, during a preparatory meeting of the foreign affairs ministers, the DRC indicated that Rwanda had set a controversial condition: the organisation of a direct dialogue between the DRC and the armed group M23, blacklisted as “terrorists” by Kinshasa.
The DRC added that it had immediately rejected the proposal.
The initial objective of the tripartite meeting was to negotiate the withdrawal of Rwandan troops from Congolese territory and to end hostilities in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
AC/Sf/gg/as/APA