Abdullah Al-Haqim 
Next Tuesday, Luanda will start direct peace negotiations between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the March 23 rebels, which took control of large areas of the eastern Congo, according to the Angolan presidency announced on Wednesday.
Angola seeks to mediate a permanent ceasefire and calm the tension between the neighboring Congo and Rwanda accused of supporting the rebel group that is led by the Tutsi ethnicity. Rwanda denies these accusations.
Angola announced on Wednesday that it would try to mediate in direct talks.
The Congo government has rejected talks with the March 23 rebels, and said yesterday that it had learned of the Angolan initiative.
Tina Salama, a spokeswoman for Congo President Felix Chesikidi, said the government had received an invitation from Angola, but did not confirm her participation.
Bertrand Pisimoa, leader of the March 23 movement, boasted in a post on the X platform by forcing Cisicdy to sit at the negotiating table, saying that this is “the only civilized option to resolve the current crisis that has worsened since January.”
The rebels have seized the two largest cities in the eastern Congo since January, in an escalation of a long -standing conflict.
The roots of the conflict are due to the genocide that occurred in Rwanda in 1994, and the extension of these repercussions to the Congo and the conflict to control the huge mineral resources in it.
The Congo government said at least 7,000 people have been killed in the fighting since January. The United Nations Office for Humanitarian Coordination said at least 600,000 people have been displaced by fighting since November.
There are forces of neighboring countries, including South Africa, Burundi and Uganda, in the east of the Congo, raising fears of the outbreak of a comprehensive regional war that restores the Congo wars in the 1990s and early 21st century that killed millions of people.
The East Congo region is rich in huge reserves of strategic minerals such as cholesters, cobalt, copper and lehium, which are resources that are an essential element in the world race to develop new technology and green energy.
