Angola to deploy troops in Congo's rebel-hit east

Internally displaced Congolese people gather during the visit of a delegation of the U.N. Security Council at the Bushagara site near Goma in the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo March 12, 2023. REUTERS/Arlette Bashizi/File Photo

Angola will send 500 soldiers to neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo to secure areas held by the M23 rebel group after the southern African country's parliament approved the deployment on Friday.

Insecurity has spiralled in Congo's volatile east over the past year, partly due to the resurgence of the M23, a rebel group claiming to represent the interests of ethnic Tutsis, which has seized large parts of Congo's North Kivu province.