Africa-Press – Angola. Angola has expressed concern about the advance of the M23 in North Kivu, after violent clashes with units of the Armed Forces of the DRC (FARDC) and the seizure of new locations by that movement.
The position was expressed by the assistant permanent representative of the Mission of Angola to the UN in New York, João Gimolieca, during his speech at the meeting of the 1533 Sanctions Committee on the Democratic Republic of Congo, held last Thursday.
According to a press release from the Permanent Mission of Angola to the United Nations, the diplomat said that the clashes had already killed and injured several civilians, in addition to hundreds of thousands of displaced people and refugees in neighboring countries, further aggravating the humanitarian situation.
Therefore, Angola strongly condemns the series of attacks by the M23 and its advances that undermine security and stability in the region, demanding an immediate cessation of hostilities and any new advances, as well as its withdrawal from all occupied areas.
He said that as acting President of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region, Angola is also concerned about the escalation of tension in relations between the DRC and Rwanda, as well as the potential risk of regionalization of the conflict.
In this regard, he informed that the country has been making efforts to find a solution for the normalization of political and diplomatic relations between the two countries.
He also made it known that, in order to reduce the impact of the humanitarian situation in the DRC, Angola sent last November, to the city of Goma, about 30 and a half tons of various food products, which served as humanitarian support and assistance to displaced populations.
He referred that the support comes as a response from President João Lourenço to the request of the President of the DRC, Félix Tshissekedi, following the mini-summit for peace and security in the East Region of the DRC, held in Luanda.
The diplomat reiterated that Angola will continue to support and encourage all cooperation efforts between regional and sub-regional organizations.
“We believe that with the current recognition of the UN Security Council, the two processes (Luanda and Narobi) as being of political-diplomatic and political-military essence, and which run in parallel in a complementary regime, are the solutions to resolve the conflict in common border between the DRC and Rwanda”, he asserted.
The mid-term report was presented by the chairman of the Panel of Experts of the 1533 Sanctions Committee on the DRC, Mélanie De Groof, who described a challenging picture in view of the upsurge of clashes in recent months.
Besides Angola, representatives of the DRC, RWanda, Gabon, Burundi, South Sudan, France, Belgium, China, Ghana, United States of America and Albania also took part in the meeting.
As part of efforts to mediate the conflict between the DRC and Rwanda, on November 23, 2022, the city of Luanda hosted the mini-summit on peace and security in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The meeting was chaired by the Angolan Head of State, João Lourenço, as Champion of the African Union for Peace and Reconciliation in Africa and Mediator appointed to maintain dialogue between the two countries.
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