Angola ‘deeply concerned’ as DR Congo battle intensify

Angolan President Joao Lourenco has urged warring parties in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to return to peace talks, which collapsed last year, the foreign ministry said.

“The conflict and security challenges in the east of the DRC do not have a military solution,” the ministry said in a statement late Friday, adding that Lourenco “urges the parties to return to the negotiating table immediately.”

Since Angola-led peace talks failed late last year, the M23 militia group backed by Rwandan troops has gained swathes of territory in the mineral-rich east of the DRC.

That has triggered a humanitarian crisis as their forces close in on the provincial capital, which is home to a million people.

The Angolan statement said the attacks “reflect a dangerous escalation in this conflict, with enormous implications for the fragile humanitarian situation, particularly around the town of Goma, now under siege”.

Lourenco “strongly condemns and repudiates these irresponsible actions by the M23 and its supporters, which jeopardise all the efforts and progress made in the Luanda Process towards a peaceful resolution of this conflict, and deplores the harmful consequences for regional security” it said.

US, British and French nationals were urged to leave Goma while airports and borders were still open, in online statements or in messages sent directly by email or text.

With fighting intensifying, the United Nations mission in DRC, MONUSCO, said Friday that its peacekeepers were fighting against the M23.

In August, Angola had mediated a fragile truce that stabilised the situation at the front line. But M23 went back on the attack, and December peace talks were cancelled at the last minute.