The Rwanda-backed M23 armed group cautiously welcomed Thursday the prospect of direct negotiations with the Congolese government to end the conflict in the volatile eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Since its 2021 resurgence, the M23 has been fighting the Congolese army there, seizing swathes of the DRC’s mineral-rich territory in a region plagued by decades of violence.

In recent months, its rapid advance has sparked fears of a wider war drawing in regional powers, while the deaths of peacekeepers from southern Africa prompted a regional bloc to decide to pull its mission to the DRC on Thursday.

On Tuesday, Angola said it would host talks in a bid to halt the fighting, later giving a date of March 18 for the beginning of negotiations.

In a statement the M23 said it “welcomed favourably” the announcement of the talks, to be held in the Angolan capital Luanda.

The armed group nonetheless raised several “concerns”, urging Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi to “publicly and unequivocally express his commitment to direct negotiations” as an “absolute necessity”.

Tshisekedi had previously refused to engage in direct dialogue with the M23, which he has repeatedly branded a “terrorist” group.

But Angolan President Joao Lourenco had said Tuesday that “direct negotiations” between the two sides would take place, after receiving Tshisekedi for discussions.

Tshisekedi’s spokesperson, Tina Salama, said on X that his government took “note” of Angola’s efforts but would not be drawn on the specifics.

Various rounds of talks between the DRC and Rwanda have produced a series of ceasefires and truces that have had little effect on the fighting, which has displaced tens of thousands and triggered a vast humanitarian crisis.

Both Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame have been negotiation no-shows on previous occasions. Tshisekedi is yet to comment on the Angolan proposal himself.

A summit between the two leaders announced by Luanda in December foundered after the DRC refused Kigali’s request to negotiate with the M23 directly.

– Southern African pullout –

In recent months, the M23 launched a lightning offensive that has pushed the Congolese army out much of the eastern North and South Kivu provinces, with Rwanda’s help.

It is the latest flare-up in a region devastated by decades of fighting involving dozens of armed groups, with many seeking to control its rich veins of key minerals used in technology.

Since January, the armed group has taken the key provincial capitals of Goma and Bukavu straddling the Rwandan border, and readied itself to govern for the long term in the territory it has captured.

On Thursday, the 16-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) said it had decided to end its military deployment to the eastern DRC, following the deaths of more than a dozen of its soldiers during the M23 offensive.

Made up of soldiers from Malawi, Tanzania and South Africa, the peacekeeping force was sent to the eastern DRC in December 2023 to help the Congolese government restore order.

Rwanda, which unlike the DRC is not a member of the SADC, accused the peacekeeping mission of being an offensive force that added to the eastern DRC’s existing problems.

Speaking to the press, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa Thursday said he hoped the SADC withdrawal would “consolidate” efforts towards a truce, adding the prospect of the start of negotiations built confidence that peace was possible.

Since the beginning of this year the M23’s offensive has killed more than 7,000 people, according to the DRC. AFP has not been able to verify that figure independently.

Rwanda denies providing the M23 with military support.

But a UN experts’ report found Kigali maintains around 4,000 troops in the DRC’s east to assist the armed group.

Rwanda also maintains de facto control over the armed group in order to exploit the eastern DRC’s rich veins of valuable minerals such as gold and coltan, according to the report.

Coltan is used in the manufacture of key electronics including laptops and mobile phones.

Rwanda has pointed to the presence in the eastern DRC of militants from the FDLR, a group founded by Hutu leaders involved in the 1994 Rwandan genocide of the Tutsis, to justify its backing of the M23.

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