Angolan politician claims that the best way to resolve the DR Congo problem is through talks with M23

“Dialogue is the only solution” to the growing security situation in eastern DR Congo, according to Angolan President João Lourenço, who has emphasized the urgent necessity for Congolese authorities to hold negotiations with the AFC/M23 insurgents.

Other leaders have pushed the Congolese president to engage in talks with the rebels instead of pursuing a military solution, Lourenço, the mediator for the DR Congo in the African Union-backed Luanda process, told French magazine Jeune Afrique.

After seizing the strategically important city of Goma on January 27, the AFC/M23 has vowed to move on Bukavu city as they make their way to Kinshasa, the country’s capital.

In an interview with Jeune Afrique that was published on Thursday, February 14, Lourenço stated, “The Congolese authorities are aware, and we have advised Tshisekedi to talk to all parties, including M23 since they are Congolese citizens.”

Lourenço cited his nation’s experiences learned during the Angolan civil war, which lasted from 1975 to 2002, when he stated that “dialogue is the only solution when a conflict pits compatriots against one another.”

“President Tshisekedi is reminded repeatedly by this excellent example that there will eventually be no way out of this [conflict].”

Since the rebels began seizing territory in the North Kivu province of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo in the middle of 2022, Lourenço has served as a mediator in the Luanda process.

His response came over a week after the presidents of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the East African Community (EAC) convened in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and called for the Congolese leader to hold negotiations with the rebels.

Since he is now the incoming Chairperson of the African Union, the Angolan leader stated that he will hand off the mediation of the Luanda process to another head of state.

After the Congolese government refused to sign an agreement that would open the door to direct negotiations with the rebels, the Luanda process—which was started to resolve diplomatic friction between Rwanda and DR Congo over the claim that Kigali supported M23—came to a standstill in mid-December.

The loss of Goma marked the greatest escalation of the conflict.
The presidents of the EAC and SADC also decided to combine the Nairobi and Luanda processes for the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo into a single procedure.