Trump senior Africa adviser 'discussed peace plan' with Rwanda, DRC leaders
DRC and Rwanda earlier this month submitted a proposal as part of a process meant to end the fighting in eastern DRC and attract billions of dollars of Western investment. Boulos said they worked on the drafts and came up with the current one.
"We are awaiting the final feedback from both parties," Boulos said on Thursday. "As soon as we finalise this last round, as indicated before, secretary [of state Marco] Rubio is ready and prepared to host them here. So we hope this can be concluded as quickly as possible in the coming few weeks."
Boulos said that there was no specific timeline for the foreign ministers to visit Washington. Earlier this month he told Reuters that Rubio would meet in Washington in mid-May with the Rwandan and DRC foreign ministers in an effort to agree on a final draft peace accord.
The diplomacy comes amid an unprecedented advance by Rwandan-backed M23 rebels in eastern DRC that has killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands more. The rebels seized Goma, eastern DRC's largest city, in late January and Bukavu, the area's second-largest, weeks later.
The UN and Western governments say Rwanda has provided arms and troops to M23. Rwanda denies backing the group and says its military has acted in self-defense against DRC's army and a militia founded by perpetrators of the 1994 genocide.
Tshisekedi's government is engaged in separate talks with M23 facilitated by Qatar. Last month DRC and the rebels agreed to work towards peace, but sources in the two delegations have expressed frustration with the pace of negotiations.
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