President Paul Kagame on November 28, 2024 talked with João Lourenço of Angola about security in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The eastern part of the DRC has been at war for three years between the government forces and the M23 armed group that controls many parts of North Kivu province.
The Office of the President of Angola, who is the liaison between Rwanda and the DRC appointed by the African Union, explained that the conversation between the two heads of state took place over the phone.
It appears that during this conversation, President Lourenço was with those in the field of foreign affairs and security who recently represented Angola in the Luanda talks between Rwanda and the DRC that took place on November 25, 2024.
This conversation follows what President Lourenço had with Félix Tshisekedi of the RDC on November 27, two days after the delegations of Rwanda, the RDC and Angola agreed on the activities of the plan to destroy the FDLR terrorist group.
The delegation agreed that the operation to destroy the FDLR will be carried out in three phases and will last for three months.
The first, which will last 15 days, will be the time to analyze the problems that the FDLR may cause, to identify its bases and where it stores its equipment.
The second phase is the non-stop attacks on the FDLR and its affiliated groups, and it is expected that while it continues, there will be a joint assessment that will be carried out by the security forces led by Angola.
The representatives of these countries agreed that in the second phase of destroying the FDLR, Rwanda will begin to remove the security measures it has placed on the border, and an assessment will be made of what will be done.
This will be followed by the third phase of the removal of FDLR fighters from Rwanda and their rehabilitation, as well as the normalization of relations between Rwanda and the DRC in early 2022.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Rwanda, Ambassador Olivier Nduhungirehe, announced that the M23 issue was not the focus of the talks that took place on November 25, explaining that the representatives of these countries will meet again, and they will discuss how found the answer.
He said: "We agreed to meet again to find a solution to this problem for us as a country. We have shown that there are three security problems between Rwanda and the DRC, which include destroying the FDLR, removing our measures, and the rest is about M23."
President Lourenço aims to bring together Kagame and Tshisekedi in a discussion, while the representatives of these countries at the ministerial level have already agreed irrevocably on the solutions that would restore peace and security in the eastern part of the DRC.
