Talks due Sunday between the leaders of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo to end conflict in the eastern DRC were called off, the Angolan presidency said.

“Contrary to what we expected, the summit will no longer be held today,” the presidency’s media officer Mario Jorge told journalists.

President Joao Lourenco — the African Union mediator to end the conflict — was meeting alone with DRC leader Felix Tshisekedi, Jorge said.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame had been expected at the meeting but it was not clear if he was in Angola.

There had been hopes the talks would reach an agreement to end conflict in the eastern DRC, where the Rwanda-backed M23 militia has seized swathes of territory, displacing thousands and triggering a humanitarian crisis.

The Congolese presidency said that negotiations had hit deadlock over a Rwandan demand that DRC hold direct dialogue with the M23 rebels.

AFP