The Presidents of Angola and Rwanda delivered a speech on the conflict in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The heads of state of Angola and Rwanda spoke by phone this Wednesday following peace efforts in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRCongo), the Angolan administration said.

According to a note from the Angolan Presidency, the contact between João Lourenço and Paul Kagame served to “assess the situation on the ground, mainly the commitments made by each of the parties at the Luanda Summit.”

The heads of the two states also “jointly assessed the prospects for putting all agreed mechanisms into action so that peace and security can be restored in the eastern region of the DRC,” the note from Luanda says.

The March 23 Movement (M23) rebel group, whose clashes with the army of the Democratic Republic of the Congo have already resulted in hundreds of deaths this year, showed this Wednesday “willingness to withdraw” from the territories it occupies and start a peaceful dialogue.

M23 has requested a “meeting” with the East African Community (EAC, in English acronym) allied military forces that have begun deploying east of the DRC, as well as with the regional bloc mediator, former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, who is leading the peace process between the Congolese government and the armed groups operating in that part of the country.

The group, which Kinshasa considers terrorists and which has continued its attacks since the start of the first round of peace talks in Nairobi last April, remains out of the process at the behest of the Congolese government.

The group also reaffirmed the acceptance of the “ceasefire” demanded at the November 23 Luanda summit sponsored by Angolan President João Lourenço, the African Union mediator in the DRC-Rwanda dispute, whom Kinshasa accuses of backing the M23.

Although Kigali vehemently denies such support, a report by UN experts published in August confirmed such cooperation.

At the Luanda summit, Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Viruta, representing President Paul Kagame, called for a cessation of hostilities from 25 November, but the fighting never stopped.

At least 272 people were killed in an M23 attack last week in the town of Kishish in Rutshuru territory in North Kivu province, according to the Congolese government.

However, the rebels estimate that the number of civilians killed by “stray bullets” is eight people.

M23 was created in 2012 when Congolese soldiers rebelled due to the loss of power of their leader, Bosco Ntaganda, who was charged with war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC); condemning several violations of the March 23, 2009 peace agreement that gave the movement its name.

Among other conditions, the group is demanding a revision of the agreement signed by the National Congress of Congolese Rebels for the Defense of the People (CNDP) for its integration into the army in order to improve its conditions.

The predominantly Tutsi CNDP (a group that was the main victim of the Rwandan genocide in 1994) was formed in 2006, among other things, to fight against the Hutus of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), founded in 2000. leaders associated with the genocide and other Rwandan exiles in the DRC to restore political power in Rwanda.

After years of inactivity, the M23 resumed hostilities last March with the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC), displacing at least 340,000 people in the country’s east, according to the UN.

After several months of truce, fighting resumed in October, and the M23 advanced to lay siege to Goma, the capital of North Kivu, located less than 100 kilometers from the Rwandan capital of Kigali, on the other side of the border, which the rebels had captured. 2012.

The Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has been mired in conflict for more than two decades, fueled by rebel militias and the Congolese army, despite the presence of a United Nations peacekeeping mission (MONUSCO).