The Southern African Development Community (SADC) and East African Community (EAC) political blocs have appointed five former heads of state, including Nigeria's Olusegun Obasanjo, South Africa's Kgalema Motlanthe and Ethiopia's Sahle-Work Zewde, to "facilitate" the peace process in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), they said in a statement yesterday.

Following the Angolan President's withdrawal, the DR Congo Presidency said on the social network X that the new panel would appoint a mediator to continue with the peace mission.

Diplomatic efforts to resolve the biggest conflict in eastern DR Congo in decades seemed to have stalled last week when the Rwandan-backed M23 failed to show up for peace talks with the Congolese government in Angola and later captured the strategic town of Walikale.

The Rwandan government said in X that the leaders present at Monday's summit "committed themselves to a political solution that would address the security concerns of all parties".

The Angolan government expressed frustration last week about a surprise meeting organized by the Emir of Qatar between DR Congo President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame, the first direct meeting between the two since the conflict intensified at the end of last year.

Tshisekedi and Kagame issued a joint statement calling for an "immediate and unconditional" ceasefire. The M23 failed to show up for what could have been its first direct negotiations with Kinshasa last week, after the European Union (EU) imposed sanctions against the rebels and the Rwandan authorities.

On the other hand, DR Congo and South Africa will discuss the "strengthening of Congolese strategic defense capabilities", announced the South African Ministry of Defense, in connection with the four-day visit that the democratic Congolese minister, Guy Mwadiamvita, began on Monday in Pretoria, reports "Notícias".

South African military personnel are present in eastern DRCongo, as part of an international mission of the SADC operation whose "progressive withdrawal" was announced in the middle of this month.

The talks will focus on "key areas of defense cooperation" and aim to "strengthen strategic defense capabilities between the two nations," the press release adds.

Fourteen South African soldiers from the SADC and UN missions died in January when M23 took the towns of Sake and Goma, the latter being the provincial capital of North Kivu.