Congo’s government and Rwanda-backed rebels are meeting in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar for much-anticipated talks in a renewed push for peace in the conflict-battered eastern Congo, where the insurgents have seized vast territory, officials said Thursday.
The decades-long conflict escalated in January, when the M23 rebels advanced and seized the strategic eastern Congolese city of Goma, followed by the town of Bukavu in February. The fighting has killed some 3,000 people and raised the fears of a wider regional war.
