Kagame, Tshisekedi sign deal to stop hostilities
Rwandan President Paul Kagame and his Congolese counterpart Félix Tshisekedi have met and signed a deal to cease hostilities in regards the conflict in eastern DRC.
For the past two or so month, the relations between the Kigali and Kinshasa have been at their lowest with both establishments trading accusations against each other.
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The frost relations started with the renewed attacks by M23 rebels who resumed activities after a 10 year lull in eastern DRC.
DRC government directly blamed neighbouring Rwanda for supporting the renewed invasion by M23 rebels.
In the same vein, Rwanda accused the DRC army of kidnapping two of its soldiers as well as shelling places inside Rwanda as both presidents never saw eye to eye with each other.
DRC recently rejected the participation of Rwanda in the East African standby force meant to deploy and help in stabilizing eastern DRC.
However, on Wednesday, both leaders signed a cessation of hostilities agreement witnessed by Angolan President, João Lourenço in Luanda.
Through the Luanda roadmap, both leaders promised to revive the joint Rwanda-DRC commission, but also normalize relations between the two countries.
In the agreement, the two leaders committed to the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of M23 rebels from their positions in DRC.
It remains to be seen whether the agreement will be effected by both countries in a bid to restore peace in eastern DRC which had raised concern of other East African countries.
Cessation of hostilities will be of great benefit, to especially neighbouring Uganda that has started making inroads in Democratic Republic of Congo but the same had been sabotaged by the renewed fighting by M23 rebels.
The fighting saw the rebels capture Bunagana town which shares the border with Uganda and in retaliation, DRC suspended cross border trade via the Bunagana border since the M23 rebels had started levying taxes on goods from Uganda to the area.
