FILE PHOTO: Civilians push their belongings on a wooden handcart known as Tshikudu as they flee after heavy gunfire that raised fears of M23 rebels advancing along a road from Sake near Goma in the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo February 9, 2023. REUTERS/Djaffar Sabiti/File Photo
KINSHASA (Reuters) - A meeting between the presidents of Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo will not take place as planned on Sunday, both countries said, dashing hopes of a deal to curb Congo's M23 rebel conflict that has displaced more than 1.9 million people.
The event was meant to see a rare face-to-face meeting between the central African leaders in Angola, where long-running negotiations have sought to ease tensions between the neighbours linked to the almost three-year M23 insurgency.
Expectations that a deal would be signed had raised hopes of an end to a standoff that has further destabilised eastern Congo and fanned fears of a broader conflict in Africa's Great Lakes region akin to two devastating wars between 1996 and 2003 that cost millions of lives.
"The cancellation of this tripartite is caused by the refusal of the Rwandan delegation to take part," the government of Congo said in a statement.
It said on Saturday Rwanda had made the signing of a peace agreement conditional on Congo holding direct talks with M23 rebels, which Congo rejected.
Rwanda’s foreign minister, Olivier Nduhungirehe, said the meeting had been postponed, but made no further comment.
The peace plan envisaged Rwanda dismantling what it has called its defensive measures in the conflict in exchange for Congo eliminating a Hutu rebel group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), which had attacked Tutsis in both countries.
Congo, the United Nations, and others accuse Rwanda of fuelling the rebellion in North Kivu province by deploying its own troops and weapons to support M23, a group formed to defend the interests of Congolese Tutsis, the ethnic group to which Rwandan President Paul Kagame belongs.
Rwanda denies this, just saying it has taken its defensive measures, and accuses Congo of recruiting FDLR militants to fight on its side. There were 3,000-4,000 Rwandan troops in Congo with "de facto control" over M23 operations, U.N. experts said this year.
(Reporting by Ange Kasongo, Yassin Kombi, Philbert Girinema; Additional reporting by Sonia Rolley; Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Louise Heavens)
