AFRICAN UNION BACKS UNIFIED MEDIATION TO REVIVE EASTERN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO PEACE PROCESS

BAMAKO (Mali), Jan 18 (Bernama-Anadolu) -- African and international leaders meeting in Lomé agreed to strengthen and unify mediation efforts to end the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), endorsing the central role of the African Union (AU)-mandated mediation led by Togo.

According to Anadolu Ajansi, the agreement came at the close of a two-day high-level meeting Friday and Saturday that was chaired by Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé, president of the Council of the Togolese Republic and AU mediator for the Great Lakes crisis.

Participants urged all parties to accelerate the good-faith implementation of existing peace commitments and to prioritise political solutions to military confrontation.

The communiqué said the meeting stressed the need for greater coherence, harmonisation and coordination among African, regional and international peace initiatives to avoid fragmentation that could undermine stability in the eastern DRC.

It formally endorsed a revised mediation architecture, including the establishment of an Independent Joint Secretariat to support the AU Panel of Facilitators, which includes former presidents of Nigeria, Kenya, the Central African Republic, Botswana and Ethiopia.

The meeting reaffirmed support for the Doha process between the Congolese government and the AFC/M23 armed group, urging the parties to resume talks without delay to conclude negotiations on the remaining six protocols of the comprehensive peace framework agreed to in 2025.

Participants also welcomed recent diplomatic breakthroughs, including a series of US-brokered agreements between the DRC and Rwanda signed in Washington in 2025, as well as Qatari-led talks that produced the Doha Declaration of Principles and the Doha Framework Agreement for a Comprehensive Peace Agreement. The Paris Conference in Support of Peace and Prosperity in the Great Lakes Region, held in October, was cited as a key step in mobilising international backing.

“The meeting reinforced the coherence of mediation initiatives, examined the overall roadmap of the peace process and better articulated the efforts of the different facilitators,” Gnassingbé wrote on US social media platform X. “Only a concerted and durable political solution will restore peace, security and stability for the benefit of the populations of the Great Lakes region.”

The meeting concluded with the adoption of a unified mediation framework document and a plan to guide coordinated action, as well as a renewed commitment to structure African follow-up on the implementation of peace agreements.

The fighting in eastern DR Congo intensified in recent months against a backdrop of a peace agreement signed Dec 4 in Washington by Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame to put an end to the fighting in eastern Congo.

The M23 rebel group controls significant territory in eastern Congo, including the provincial capitals of Goma and Bukavu, which it seized in early 2025. The UN, Kinshasa, and others accuse neighbouring Rwanda of supporting the M23, which Kigali denies.

Violence has persisted in eastern Congo for decades, killing thousands and displacing millions.

-- BERNAMA-ANADOLU