Yesterday, Wednesday, December 18, 2024, at Village Urugwiro, President Paul Kagame received a special message from Tete António, who is the special envoy of the Angolan President João Laurenço and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of this country.
Mr. Tete António brought a message addressed to His Excellency President Kagame, which was delivered by João Laurenço, who was tasked with acting as a mediator in political issues between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, particularly regarding the insecurity in eastern DRC.
According to information from the Village Urugwiro office where President Kagame works, Tete António was received by President Kagame on the afternoon of Wednesday, December 18. The Rwandan Presidency, via its former Twitter account, said: “This evening at Village Urugwiro, President Kagame received Hon.
Tete António, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Angola, presenting him with a message as the special envoy of President João Laurenço, who is currently the mediator in the Luanda talks.” On Sunday, Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Olivier Nduhungirehe, announced that talks that were supposed to bring together Felix Tshisekedi of the DRC and President Paul Kagame in Luanda have been canceled.
The talks, which were supposed to take place this Sunday, are aimed at easing the tension between the two countries, which stems from the long-standing insecurity in eastern DRC.
It was planned that this Sunday there would be a meeting of heads of state to discuss these security issues.
This meeting was to bring together the leaders of these countries in order to support and conclude diplomatic activities that were accompanied by the signing of an agreement between representatives of both sides aimed at preventing conflict and the simmering war between Rwanda and the DRC.
The DRC government accuses Rwanda of openly supporting the M23 rebels, and Congo confirms that there are also its troops in the forests of eastern DRC.
However, Rwanda denies any support for M23, instead expressing concerns that the country is hosting the FDLR, which is mainly made up of former Rwandan rebels who invaded Rwanda in 1994 and who continue to spread genocide ideology, which is linked to the atrocities against the Tutsi ethnic group living in eastern DRC. The M23 movement has been demanding direct negotiations with the Congolese government, although the Kinshasa government has continued to block this plan.