Togo accepts AU mediator role in DR Congo conflict

Togo's leader has accepted a role as the African Union's mediator in the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the Togolese foreign ministry said Sunday.

President Faure Gnassingbe will take over from Angolan President Joao Lourenco, who last month relinquished the role he was appointed to in 2022.

There has been little headway in repeated attempts to pacify the protracted conflict involving the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group, which recently launched a lightning offensive and seized large swathes of land in mineral-rich eastern DRC.

On Sunday, Togolese Foreign Minister Robert Dussey shared an AU statement saying Gnassingbe had been appointed "as Mediator for the AU engagement between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Republic of Rwanda in the context of protracted insecurity in the Eastern part of the DRC".

An AU spokesperson verified the statement to AFP.

Dussey thanked the African Union and member states for "the confidence expressed" in Gnassingbe, adding he will "actively contribute to the search for sustainable peace, reconciliation and stability in the Great Lakes region".

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Togo's minister of public service reform, labour, and social dialogue, Gilbert Bawara, who is close to Gnassingbe, said he was a "leader known for his ability to listen, for his discretion".

Since the end of 2021, a half-dozen ceasefires and truces have been brokered before being broken in short order.

Efforts by Angola to mediate have failed, but DR Congo and M23 representatives held talks in Qatar in late March. The Rwandan and DRC presidents also met in Doha.