It was on Tuesday that Congo and the M23 radical group once again met in Doha to negotiate plans to bring the war to an end in the mineral-rich eastern provinces of the country.
A representative from the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Majed al-Ansari, said that diplomats from Kinshasa and the M23 were already in Doha to follow up on the implementation of the peace accord signed in July.
The deal mediated by Qatar dedicated both sides to a halt in hostilities and mapped ways for the side-step of pending issues by dialogue. Actually, as per the pact, discussions were expected to start on the 8th of August and be over on the 18th of August. However, the period expired on both occasions without reaching any agreement, and the accord has been facing challenges even with rumors that each party has violated it.
So far, the talks have considered a method of setting up the organization responsible for the truce, as well as exchanging prisoners and detainees, noted Al-Ansari.
Besides, he stated that the United States and the International Committee of the Red Cross were playing an instrumental role in the mediation process.
Qatar’s peace proposal was new compared to a ceasefire pact signed in the US between Rwanda, which is M23’s ally, and the DRC in June. The M23 declared that it was not accepting that accord and that it would only negotiate directly with Kinshasa to settle what it called political grievances that had not been resolved.
Talking about the conflict, President Donald Trump stated that he brought an end to it while referring to DRC as the “darkest, deepest” part of Africa and claiming that he “saved a lot of lives.”
On Monday, Trump insisted that nine million people had been “killed with machetes” during the war and said “I stopped it.”
