Congo and M23 rebels miss deadline to reach Doha peace deal

Desmond Milligan · August 18

KINSHASA (Reuters) -The Congolese government and M23 rebels have missed Monday's deadline to reach a peace agreement in Doha, raising fears that tensions between the two parties might derail talks and reverse progress made to end the conflict.

Fighting in eastern Congo has intensified this year, with the M23 group launching an offensive that allowed it to capture the two largest cities in the region.

Under a mediation effort hosted by Qatar, Congo and the rebels signed a declaration of principles on July 19 in which they vowed to start negotiating a deal no later than August 8 with the goal of reaching it by August 18.

The AFC-M23 Movement said in a statement on Sunday that only the full implementation of the declaration of principles, which includes the release of prisoners, would enable the next round of talks to proceed.

A senior AFC source said on Monday that while rebels didn't expect significant progress from the talks, they would send a small delegation in the coming days due to Qatar's pressure as negotiators.

"Our delegation will simply reinforce the need to implement these measures before we can engage in negotiations," the source said.

A governmental source said authorities had received a draft agreement from the mediation team, and both parties are working on their comments before delegates return to Doha later this week.

It added that the release of prisoners is a complicated prerequisite because it can be a subject of negotiations rather than a condition to continue talks.

A Qatari official told Reuters on Sunday that while the timeline outlined in the declaration of principles had not been met, both parties expressed a willingness to continue negotiations.

(Reporting by Ange Kasongo in Kinshasa, Giulia Paravicini in Nairobi and Andrew Mills in Doha; Writing by Anait Miridzhanian; Editing by Ayen Deng Bior, Jessica Donati and Sharon Singleton)

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