The agreement calls for Rwandan troops to withdraw within 90 days from eastern DRC, where the United Nations says they are supporting M23 rebels who seized the region’s two largest cities earlier this year.

Rwanda denies helping M23 and says its forces are acting in self-defence against DRC’s army and ethnic Hutu militiamen linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, including from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

Kagame told reporters Rwanda was committed to implementing the deal but that it could fail if DRC did not live up to its promises to neutralise the FDLR.

“If the side that we are working with plays tricks and takes us back to the problem, then we deal with the problem like we have been dealing with it,” Kagame said.

Kagame said he was grateful for the involvement of US President Donald Trump’s administration in mediation efforts.

“If it doesn’t work, they aren’t the ones to blame,” he said.

The DRC's government and M23 said on Thursday they would send delegations back to Qatar for parallel talks aimed at ending the conflict, which has killed thousands of people and displaced hundreds of thousands more since January.

--Reuters--