A military battalion will be deployed to the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola has announced, days after a ceasefire it mediated failed to quell the bloodshed.
The M23 rebels and government troops have accused each other of violating the truce that went into effect on Tuesday.
A force from East Africa was also recently deployed to the mineral-rich and militia-infested region. According to the United Nations, 300,000 people were displaced by fighting last month.
This occurred in the fertile and hilly North Kivu province, which borders Rwanda and Uganda and has been ravaged by opposing factions for decades.
The humanitarian catastrophe precipitated by the violence, which was still underway on Friday, is causing growing worry.
Humanitarian organisations are overburdened, according to the European Union, which has recently begun a mission to fly aid to the regional capital of Goma.
According to a statement from the Angolan president’s office, the soldiers would be deployed to help secure rebel-held areas and safeguard ceasefire monitors.
In addition, Kenyan soldiers from the East African Community Regional Force have been deployed to these regions.
The rebels, who are largely believed to be sponsored by Rwanda, announced just hours ago that they will withdraw from a number of occupied communities.
The Congolese government will welcome the assistance of Angolan troops in the war against insurgents. But there is a risk that this will escalate into a global confrontation.
More than two decades ago, the armies of at least eight African nations fought in eastern DR Congo in a conflict nicknamed “Africa’s world war” that caused unimaginable misery among the civilian population.
Rwanda has criticised the Congolese government for many years for neglecting to disarm Hutu insurgents, some of whom are linked to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
Moscow denies helping the M23, which over the past year has conquered enormous swaths of terrain and has been moving on Goma.
In addition to capturing vast portions of North Kivu a decade ago, M23 militants were ultimately routed by UN and regional troops and disarmed as part of a peace agreement.
They began regrouping at the beginning of last year Primarily composed of Congolese army deserters, they took up guns for the first time in 2009, accusing the government of marginalising the country’s ethnic Tutsi minority and violating prior peace agreements.
