Qatar has shared a draft peace agreement with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the M23 rebel movement as part of the Doha peace process, a Qatari official told the Congolese outlet Actualite.cd.
“Although the timeline set in the Doha Declaration of Principles for the signing of the agreement was not met, both parties responded positively to the facilitator and expressed their willingness to continue negotiations,” the official said, adding that Doha hopes on-the-ground obstacles can be resolved “quickly” through dialogue and “sincere engagement.”
Kinshasa and M23 signed a declaration of principles on July 19 in Doha, following a U.S.-brokered Congo–Rwanda agreement in Washington on June 27. The declaration committed the sides to a permanent ceasefire and called for confidence-building measures, including prisoner releases.
The government has resisted M23’s demand for the immediate release of more than 700 detainees, backing a case-by-case amnesty instead. M23 has insisted all its prisoners be transferred to Goma before further talks.
The declaration set Aug. 8 to begin direct negotiations once confidence measures were in place, and Aug. 18 as a target to conclude and sign a final deal. Those deadlines were missed after the parties failed to convene on Aug. 8. The rebels, central to the conflict in eastern Congo, control significant territory, including the provincial capitals Goma and Bukavu, seized earlier this year.
