The Angolan Parliament is due to consider this Friday the request for the deployment of a military contingent in eastern DRC. This deployment was announced a few days ago by the Angolan President, João Lourenço, who is also current president of the international conference on the Great Lakes region and mediator in the crisis in the DRC.
With our correspondent in Kinshasa, Patient Ligodi
The validation of Angolan deputies is mandatory, but should not pose any problems. How, in the DRC, do the Congolese authorities view the mission and mandate of this contingent?
For Kinshasa, the Angolan contingent does not come to fight in eastern DRC. Neither against the M23 nor against all the other groups. It implements the verification mechanism provided for by the Luanda process.
At the Congolese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we insist on the technical nature of this expedition. It is a question of deploying to prepare the cantonment of the M23 after the ceasefire and the possible withdrawal of this movement from the zones which it has conquered in recent months.
The other axis of the mission is to verify the allegations and accusations of aggression that poison relations between Kinshasa and Kigali.
However, at this stage, neither the number nor the duration of this mission have yet been defined.
The deployment of this force will also depend on the diplomatic contacts made around the withdrawal of the M23.
Angolan mediation has already seized the leaders of the region to speed up the process in a context of renewed tension around the city of Sake, about 30 kilometers from Goma.