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The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda are set to sign a US-brokered peace deal in Washington next week, which aims to end the fighting in eastern DRC.
A provisional agreement, announced by the two countries and the US State Department, covers issues including disarmament, the integration of non-state armed groups and the return of refugees and internally displaced people in eastern DRC. The deal is expected to be signed on 27 June.
Eastern DRC has been plagued by conflict for decades, with armed groups competing for access to natural resources, including tantalum, gold, cobalt, copper and lithium.
Congo has accused its neighbour Rwanda of backing one of the largest groups in the region, the M23 rebels. UN experts say the rebels are supported by about 4,000 troops from Rwanda, an accusation that Kigali has denied.
The conflict escalated in January, when the M23 rebels advanced and seized the strategic DRC city of Goma, followed by the town of Bukavu in February.
The draft agreement includes “provisions on respect for territorial integrity and a prohibition of hostilities; disengagement, disarmament, and conditional integration of non-state armed groups”. It also includes a commitment to respecting territorial integrity and the conditional integration of non-state armed groups.
The Trump administration has spoken of unlocking Western investment in eastern DRC, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has previously described the possibility of peace as a “win-win for everyone involved”.
Congo and Rwanda are not formally at war and in the past had held peace talks that have largely stalled, including some hosted by Qatar. Angola stepped down in March from its role as a mediator after several attempts to resolve the fighting in eastern DRC.
M23 is one of about 100 armed factions vying for control in the region. But unlike the others, it is mainly made up of ethnic Tutsis who failed to integrate into the DRC’s army.
The group says it is defending ethnic Tutsis and Congolese of Rwandan origin from discrimination, although critics say their Rwanda-backed campaign is a pretext for economic and political influence over eastern DRC.
Rwanda’s longtime President Paul Kagame accuses Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi of overlooking the concerns of the ethnic Tutsis and ignoring previous peace agreements.
Earlier this week, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said that the M23 rebels, DRC military and allied armed groups had all carried out human rights abuses, some of which could amount to war crimes.
Additional sources • AP