DRC: interim agreement near Montreux to monitor the truce
Keystone-SDA
The Congolese authorities and rebel factions have signed an interim agreement in Switzerland for the implementation of truce monitoring in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
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The rebels will play an equal part with the government in the mechanism steered by the Great Lakes Conference.
Switzerland, which has been hosting these talks since Monday, was represented at the signing by the number two in the Peace and Human Rights Division of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), according to photos posted on social networks by Congolese journalists.
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A framework agreement was signed in Doha last year when two protocols on the release of detainees and ceasefire monitoring were signed. An agreement was validated last December in Washington by the DRC and Rwanda, a supporter of the Tutsi-led rebel group M23.
But this year, the violence continues in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The M23 had agreed to withdraw from the town of Uvira, which it had taken control of, on condition that a neutral force monitored a ceasefire. However, the rebels then blamed the Congolese army and its allied militias, notably the Wazalendo, for taking over this territory.
Wednesday’s agreement provides for the Joint Truce Verification Mechanism (EJVM), led by the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), to be made up equally of the authorities and the M23. The UN is also collaborating with this mechanism.
Swiss expertise on offer
Switzerland is hosting these talks and is offering its expertise to the parties to the conflict, alongside the mediators from Qatar and the United States. This ninth round of talks has been organised near the Swiss town of Montreux because of the volatile situation in the Middle East.
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The violence of early 2025 in the east of the DRC claimed thousands of victims after the M23 took control of Goma and several towns. A million people were displaced.
A UN Fact-Finding Mission later found that the rebels had committed acts amounting to crimes against humanity. The Congolese army and its allies were accused of acts amounting to war crimes.
An international commission of enquiry is due to follow to continue the investigations, but it has not yet started work because of the cash crisis at the UN.
Translated from French by AI/mga
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