Representatives of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s government and the Alliance Fleuve Congo/M23 rebel alliance said Saturday they had agreed on a roadmap for peace negotiations, following five days of talks in Switzerland aimed at reviving a stalled process to end fighting in eastern Congo.
The talks, held Aug. 17-21, included mediators from Qatar, the United States, Togo representing the African Union the African Union Commission and Switzerland, according to a joint statement.
The parties said they had “developed a roadmap setting out sequenced steps and timelines for negotiations” under the Doha Framework for a Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which the DRC government and AFC/M23 signed in the Qatari capital on Nov. 15.
The statement did not disclose the full contents of the roadmap. But the two sides said they had agreed that the sequence in which outstanding protocols are negotiated will not determine the order in which they are carried out, opening the door to implementing some commitments before every issue under the framework is resolved.
The agreement comes as fighting continues in the mineral-rich east, where the conflict has displaced large numbers of civilians and drawn in regional militaries and foreign mediators.
The parties said they welcomed progress in setting up a ceasefire monitoring body known as the Expanded Joint Verification Mechanism Plus, or EJVM+, including the creation of its secretariat. A reconnaissance mission for the mechanism, backed logistically by the United Nations peacekeeping force in Congo, MONUSCO, was carried out Aug. 20 ahead of the mechanism’s first ceasefire verification mission, which the statement said was scheduled for Monday in Minembwe, a town in South Kivu province.
The two sides also said they had agreed on the need for a standardized system for reporting allegations of ceasefire violations, and said they would establish a mechanism to review progress and address problems in implementing the framework.
Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to pursuing a comprehensive peace agreement through implementation of the framework, the statement said.
The DRC government has repeatedly accused Rwanda of arming and directing M23, allegations Kigali has denied. Rwanda has said its own security concerns, including the presence of the Rwandan Hutu-led armed group FDLR in eastern Congo, must also be addressed as part of any settlement.
As negotiators met in Geneva, fighting was reported to have continued in eastern Congo. Lawrence Kanyuka, a spokesman for AFC/M23, said Saturday that Congolese “coalition forces” had carried out drone strikes in the Minembwe area that caused civilian casualties and damaged infrastructure. The claim could not be independently verified.
Earlier this month, the DRC transferred 15 prisoners to AFC/M23 in a handover facilitated by the International Committee of the Red Cross, part of a long-delayed prisoner exchange between the two sides.
