DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Congo's government and a coalition of insurgents in the country's east including the M23 rebels have agreed to work toward a truce following peace talks in Qatar, a joint statement said Wednesday.
The statement was posted online by spokesman Lawrence Kanyuka of the M23 rebels, and confirmed by government spokesman Patrick Muyaya in comments to local media outlets.
The statement said the parties had agreed to “work towards concluding a truce" and that they were reaffirming their commitment to “an immediate end to hostilities." Previous commitments to a ceasefire, announced unilaterally, have not held, and Wednesday's statement was the first such commitment to be announced jointly.
Delegations from Congo’s government and the M23 rebel group met earlier this month in Doha, Qatar’s capital, according to officials from both sides.
The Associated Press was not immediately able to verify if the latest announcement had changed conditions on the ground in Congo's mineral-rich eastern region.
The decades-long conflict in eastern Congo escalated in January, when the M23 rebels advanced and seized the strategic city of Goma, followed by the town of Bukavu in February.
M23 is one of about 100 armed groups that have been vying for a foothold in mineral-rich eastern Congo near the border with Rwanda, in a conflict that has created one of the world’s most significant humanitarian crises. More than 7 million people have been displaced.
The rebels are supported by about 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, according to U.N. experts, and at times have vowed to march as far as Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, about 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) to the east.
The U.N. Human Rights Council last month launched a commission to investigate atrocities, including allegations of rape and killing akin to “summary executions” by both sides.
