Africa-Press. The Democratic Republic of the Congo announced its official approval of Angola’s proposal for a ceasefire in the country’s east, following an initiative put forward by the Angolan presidency on February 13, 2026, in its capacity as Chair of the African Union.
According to a statement from the Congolese presidency, President Félix Tshisekedi accepted the principle of a ceasefire “in a spirit of responsibility, de-escalation, and the search for a peaceful solution to the conflict.”
A well-informed source said February 18 is the date effectively set for the truce to take effect, even though the official statement did not mention a specific date. The Congolese presidency said Kinshasa “takes note of the initiative of His Excellency President João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço,” and welcomed Angola’s continued efforts to establish lasting peace in the Great Lakes region.
The presidency explained that the proposed ceasefire falls under the monitoring and verification mechanism signed in Doha on October 14, 2025, whose terms of reference were agreed on February 2.
The UN mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) is currently deploying its teams to implement the mechanism, particularly in the Uvira area of South Kivu province.
The ceasefire includes, according to the statement, an “immediate and strict freeze of positions,” a halt to all military reinforcements, a ban on any offensive rotations or resupply, and a prohibition on any attempt to change the situation on the ground—along with ending all forms of external support to armed groups inside national territory. So far, the March 23 Movement (M23) has issued no official comment regarding the February 18 date.
The first response, however, came from Rwanda. In an official post, Kigali’s foreign minister said that “agreements can accumulate endlessly, but as long as there is no political will in Kinshasa to end air and artillery attacks, as long as President Tshisekedi does not abandon his gamble on an unrealistic military solution, and as long as the international community continues to ignore Kinshasa’s violations of agreements, the process will be doomed to failure.”
These developments come as questions grow over whether a new ceasefire can be firmly put in place on February 18 amid ongoing tension between Kinshasa and Kigali and continued armed group activity in eastern DR Congo.
