The 11th follow-up summit to the Addis Ababa Peace Agreement in the eastern DRC concluded Saturday afternoon, with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, African Union President Moussa Faki, and Burundian, Congolese, South African, and Ugandan presidents in attendance, though Rwandan Paul Kagame and Kenyan William Ruto were absent. The meeting aimed to relaunch the agreement, due to its lack of success.
The various participants acknowledged that the results of the framework agreement signed in Addis Ababa just 10 years ago are mixed and remain modest. However, they expressed a desire to revitalize the mechanism rather than bury it, which was the leitmotif of the summit.
After the ceremony and the public speeches, there were about three hours of discussions behind closed doors and the discussions were somewhat tense, especially between the Congolese president and the Rwandan minister. Kinshasa accuses Kigali of supporting the M23 movement which for more than a year has taken up arms and conquered part of the province of North Kivu.
“This meeting allowed the participants to compare their reading of the situation”, confides a UN official, during exchanges which he describes as “cordial, but frank and direct.”
All parties have adopted the final press release, which sets out a roadmap for reassessing this framework agreement. The African Union will lead a meeting this month, followed by a retreat with political and diplomatic actors, as well as researchers, to address this issue.