Africa-Press – Angola. The Head of State, João Lourenço, considered, Wednesday (2), the latest events on the border between the DRC and Rwanda, and insisted that dialogue is the only way for the parties to overcome the current climate of tension.
Speaking at the Board Meeting of the Assembly of the African Union (AU), held by videoconference, the Angolan President said that the tension worries neighboring countries and the continent.
To keep the door to dialogue open, President João Lourenço said that he had sent the Angolan Foreign Minister, Téte António, to Kinshasa (DRC) and Kigali (Rwanda).
He added that the minister Téte António was with the two Heads of State. “The situation is in fact quite tense”, underlined the Angolan statesman, who advises dialogue to lower the tension.
“The parties must dialogue”, insisted President João Lourenço, who acknowledged, however, that there is currently no environment for the DRC and Rwanda to dialogue at the level of Heads of State.
President João Lourenço, who is the current President-in-Office of the International Conference on Peace in the Great Lakes, underlined that “we have agreed with the DRC and Rwanda that next Saturday the Intelligence Services of the two countries and that of Angola will meet in Luanda .
“The intention is for the parties to assess, from a technical point of view, what is really happening on the ground. We will also meet, in Luanda, the ministers of Foreign Affairs of the two countries, also next Saturday”, revealed the Angolan statesman.
On the occasion, the Head of State expressed satisfaction with the fact that Kenya “takes another step towards the solution of this conflict, which places two brother countries on opposite sides”.
João Lourenço called for joint efforts to put an end to the growing tension between the two countries in recent weeks.
In his speech, the Angolan Head of State said he was aware that the Rwandan ambassador to the DRC was expelled by the authorities in Kinshasa.
After regretting the situation, he informed that the DRC is “very sorry” about what is happening in its own territory, having urged maximum restraint in the measures to be taken by the two countries.
“The door to dialogue must always be open at all levels (intelligence services, military, diplomacy and the Heads of State themselves”, he stressed.
Angola presides over the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (CIRGL), a geographic block to which the Democratic Congo belongs.
In this condition, the Angolan Head of State, João Lourenço, mandated by the African Union to mediate the conflict, has multiplied initiatives to achieve peace.
The rise in tension between the neighboring DRC and Rwanda, countries on the Great Lakes, took the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo to Angola at the beginning of last June.
Tension between the DRC and Rwanda has increased in recent months, after the resumption, in March, of fighting between the DRC army and the M23 movement, which according to the Kinshasa authorities is supported by the neighboring country.
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