DR Congo agrees to Angola-proposed ceasefire with M23 armed group

KIGALI, Rwanda

The Democratic Republic of the Congo on Friday accepted Angola's proposal for a ceasefire between the government and the AFC/M23 armed group, the president’s office announced.

Amid intensified fighting, Angola’s President Joao Lourenco earlier this week proposed a ceasefire between the warring parties in eastern Congo from Feb. 18.

The proposal followed a meeting held on Monday in Luanda between Lourenco, Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi, Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe, mediator of the African Union, and former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, one of the African Union facilitators of the peace process in the Congo.

The president has agreed to a ceasefire for a peaceful solution to the conflict, a statement by the Congo’s president’s office said.

There was no immediate reaction from the AFC/M23 armed group.

But the statement warned that any unilateral consolidation of military positions or any action aimed at altering the balance on the ground during the ceasefire period would seriously compromise the credibility of the process and weaken its prospects.

The UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix said Tuesday MONUSCO would deploy forces in the Congo’s border city of Uvira in South Kivu Province to monitor the ceasefire after their security guarantees were met.

M23 has been at the center of the conflict in eastern Congo. The rebel group allegedly supported by neighboring Rwanda, according to the UN and Western nations, controls significant territory in eastern Congo, including the provincial capitals of Goma and Bukavu seized early in 2025.