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Congo rebel leader brushes off ceasefire call; Ethiopia’s Abiy rules out war with Eritrea

Congo rebel leader brushes off ceasefire call; Ethiopia’s Abiy rules out war with Eritrea
Reuters
By Reuters
21 Mar 2025
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M23 leader says the rebel alliance is not bound by a call for a ceasefire made by the DRC’s President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame, in Doha.

The leader of a rebel alliance that has seized swathes of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) said on Thursday, 20 March,  that insurgents were not bound by a ceasefire call from the DRC and Rwanda’s presidents and cast any minerals-for-security deal with the US as “treachery”.

The DRC’s President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame, met in Doha on Tuesday for the first time since the latest M23 advance that has seen the rebels seize more territory.

The meeting came one day after M23 pulled out of direct talks with Tshisekedi’s government that were expected to take place in Angola, and as its fighters pushed deeper into Congolese territory.

The conflict in the DRC’s east is rooted in the fallout from Rwanda’s 1994 genocide and competition for mineral riches. It has spiralled since January, raising fears of a regional conflict akin to those between 1996 and 2003 that left millions dead.

“We have nothing more to lose. We will fight until our cause is heard,” Corneille Nangaa, leader of the Congo River Alliance (AFC), which includes M23, said on Thursday.

“We are defending ourselves. So if the threat continues to come from [DRC capital] Kinshasa, unfortunately, we will be forced to go and eliminate the threat because the Congo deserves better,” he said during an interview in Goma, eastern DRC’s main city.

“In the meantime, what happened in Doha, as long as we don’t know the details, and as long as it doesn’t solve our problems, we’ll say it doesn't concern us.”

Rwanda has denied supporting M23 and said its military has been acting in self defence against the DRC’s army and militias hostile to Kigali.

Nangaa also dismissed the possibility of a proposed minerals-for-security deal with the US.

The US State Department said this month it was open to exploring critical minerals partnerships with the DRC after a Congolese senator contacted US officials to pitch a deal, though Kinshasa has not publicly detailed its proposal.

Tshisekedi told Fox News on Wednesday that Kinshasa wanted a partnership that would bring peace and stability to both countries.

Nangaa, who according to a letter seen by Reuters had been endorsed by M23 to choose rebel negotiators in the aborted talks in Angola, said the US would be “naive” to pursue such a deal. “The Congolese people, who are sovereign, will block the way to this treachery, this deception,” he said.

The AFC has been trying to demonstrate that it can establish order in the territory it holds.

AFC spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka said on Wednesday that the group was working to re-open the airport in Goma, a main route for delivering humanitarian aid.

The airport was heavily damaged by Congolese forces before they withdrew from the city in late January, he said.

M23 fighters pushed further west on Thursday, capturing the strategic town of Walikale, putting them in control of a road linking four provinces in eastern DRC and within 400km of Kisangani, the DRC’s fourth-biggest city.

Ethiopia’s Abiy rules out war with Eritrea over Red Sea access


Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on Thursday that his government would not seek conflict with longtime foe Eritrea over access to the Red Sea, after regional officials and experts warned of a possible war between the Horn of Africa neighbours.

Fears of war emerged in recent weeks after Eritrea ordered a nationwide military mobilisation, according to a human rights group, and Ethiopia deployed troops toward the border, diplomatic sources and officials told Reuters.

“Ethiopia does not have any intention of engaging in conflict with Eritrea for the purpose of gaining access to the sea,” Abiy said, according to a post by his office on X.

Although access to the Red Sea was an existential matter for landlocked Ethiopia, his government wanted to address it peacefully via dialogue, Abiy added.

Renewed clashes between two of Africa’s largest armies would end a historic rapprochement for which Abiy won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 and risk a humanitarian disaster in a region already grappling with fallout from the war in Sudan.

The rapprochement saw Eritrea back Ethiopian federal forces during the 2020–2022 civil war between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and Ethiopia’s central government, which killed hundreds of thousands of people.

But the neighbours fell out again after Eritrea was frozen out of talks to end that war in November 2022.

Since then, the TPLF has split, with both factions seeking control of the post-war interim administration of the Tigray region.

The current interim administration has accused the dissident faction of collaborating with Eritrea, while the dissidents in turn say their rivals have failed to protect Tigrayan interests.

Each side denies the other’s allegations.

Abiy told parliament on Thursday the term of the interim administration had been extended for one year, with some amendments. He did not elaborate on whether the changes would include new leadership appointments, a key demand of the dissident faction.

“In line with the Pretoria agreement, the interim administration will continue until the next election,” he said, referring to a general election due in 2026.

Sudan army close to taking control of presidential palace from RSF — state broadcaster


Sudan’s army is close to taking control of the presidential palace in Khartoum from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), state TV reported on Thursday, in a significant milestone in a two-year-old conflict that threatens to fracture the country.

The RSF quickly took the palace and most of the capital at the outbreak of war in April 2023, but the Sudanese Armed Forces have in recent months staged a comeback and inched towards the palace along the River Nile.

The RSF, which earlier this year began establishing a parallel government, maintains control of parts of Khartoum and neighbouring Omdurman, as well as western Sudan, where it is fighting to take control of the army's last stronghold in Darfur, al-Fashir.

The taking of the capital could hasten the army’s full takeover of central Sudan, and harden the east-west territorial division of the country between the two forces.

Both sides have vowed to continue fighting for the remainder of the country, and no efforts at peace talks have materialised.

The war erupted amid a power struggle between Sudan's army and the RSF, ahead of a planned transition to civilian rule.

The conflict has led to what the UN calls the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, causing famine in several locations and disease across the country. Both sides have been accused of war crimes, while the RSF has also been charged with genocide. Both forces deny the charges.

The fight for the presidential palace has raged over the past several weeks, with the RSF fighting fiercely to maintain control, including using snipers placed around surrounding downtown buildings. Its leader, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, instructed troops earlier this week not to give up the palace.

Late on Wednesday into Thursday morning, explosions could be heard from airstrikes and drone attacks by the army targeting central Khartoum, witnesses and military sources told Reuters. The army has long maintained the advantage of air power over the RSF, although the paramilitary group has shown evidence of increased drone capabilities recently.

On the Telegram messenger app, the RSF said its forces were making advances towards the Army General Command, also in central Khartoum, and eyewitnesses said the force was attacking from southern Khartoum.

The army's advance in central Sudan since late last year has been welcomed by many people, who had been displaced by the RSF, which has been accused of widespread looting and arbitrary killings, and of occupying homes and neighbourhoods.

The RSF denies the charges and says individual perpetrators will be brought to justice.

Hundreds of thousands of people have returned to their homes in Central Sudan, although late on Wednesday, activists in Omdurman warned that some soldiers have engaged in robbery. The military has routinely denied such allegations.

SA pauses rate cuts as trade and budget risks overshadow low inflation


South Africa’s central bank paused its rate-cutting cycle on Thursday as risks stemming from US President Donald Trump’s global trade war and the country’s deadlocked national budget overshadowed its success keeping inflation low.

The South African Reserve Bank’s (SARB)split decision to keep the repo rate at 7.5% was in line with the median forecast of economists polled by Reuters and follows rate cuts at the previous three monetary policy meetings.

Four members supported an unchanged stance and two preferred a 25 basis point cut.

SARB governor Lesetja Kganyago said: “The global economy is not on a stable footing and there are also domestic uncertainties, ... this calls for a cautious policy approach.”

Annual inflation was unchanged at 3.2% in February, staying near the bottom of the SARB’s target range of 3–6%.

The rand has proved resilient so far this year, gaining more than 3% against the US currency in 2025 despite relations with the Trump administration souring badly over South Africa’s land reform policies and genocide case against Washington’s ally Israel at the World Court.

The most contentious part of the Budget, which does not yet have enough support in Parliament to pass, is a proposed increase in VAT of 1 percentage point spread over two years, which is expected to add to inflation. DM

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