The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda have initialed the text of an agreement aimed at stopping the conflict in eastern DRC, according to a joint statement from the two countries and the United States Department of State. The draft agreement contains provisions on issues including disarmament, the integration of non-state armed groups, and the return of refugees and internally displaced people. It will be formally signed on June 27 by ministers from the DRC and Rwanda in the presence of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Eastern DRC has been riven by conflict for decades, with armed groups competing for access to natural resources. Fighting in the region escalated in January when the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group captured Goma, the mineral-rich area’s largest city. A few weeks later, the group seized the strategic town of Bukavu. Rwanda denies supporting the rebels. Thousands of people have been killed in the region and hundreds of thousands of others displaced since the conflict intensified earlier this year. Several of the parties to the conflict have been accused of carrying out human rights abuses.
Read more here.
