After two and a half years of fighting and several broken agreements, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda have put a temporary halt in the conflict between the Congolese army and the Rwandan-backed M23 rebellion in eastern Congo's North Kivu province.

M23 rebels launched the offensive in the mineral-rich region at the end of 2021. Since then, they have seized large swathes of territory in an effort to gain a share of North Kivu's major deposits of copper, gold and diamonds.

Angola, which has been mediating to resolve the conflict, announced the peace deal on Tuesday after talks in Luanda, adding that the truce would come into effect from midnight on Sunday.

Uganda and Kenya have previously been involved in mediating peace talks between the warring parties.

Troops from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) were last year deployed to eastern Congo to neutralize the M23 rebel group — but they struggled to restore peace and security to the restive region.

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The fresh deal comes as a humanitarian truce between the M23 rebels and government forces obtained through the United States was due to expire on August 3.

However, analysts are sceptic about the new deal because previous truces inked by both countries were never respected for more than a few weeks.

Justine Masika, an activist........

© Deutsche Welle