DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: War-torn Democratic Republic of Congo moved a step closer to an elusive peace yesterday when rebels and government hammered out a power-sharing deal aimed at ending the devastating four-year conflict.
President Joseph Kabila and the two main rebel factions agreed to join together in a transitional government that would take Congo to elections 30 months from now - the first democratic poll since independence from Belgium in 1960.
Both sides hailed the deal, which was signed in Pretoria after months of bitter haggling, as a major breakthrough. "It is the best Christmas present we can give our people," said Mr Bene M'poko, Congo's ambassador to South Africa. But serious doubts also surfaced, some expressed privately by negotiators themselves, about the durability of the complex pact.
Under the deal Mr Kabila will remain as president while four vice-presidency positions will be divided between the government, opposition and the two main rebel groups - the Rwandan-backed Congolese Rally for Democracy and the Ugandan-backed Movement for the Liberation of Congo.
However, key details, such as the integration of a national army, have yet to be worked out. Congolese Rally for Democracy leader Mr Adolphe Onusumba warned: "It might take some time before this agreement is applied on the ground."
The Congolese Communications Minister, Mr Kikaya Bin Karubi, said he expected that United Nations bodyguards would be deployed to ensure the security of the rebel leaders once they take up their new posts in Kinshasa. The UN will first need to bolster its international support.
Since its deployment in 2000, the UN mission, known as Monuc, has been hampered by poor political support. Only 4,200 of a planned 5,537 troops have been deployed due to unenthusiastic western support; recently the UN Security Council boosted the mission size to 8,700.
Since fighting started in 1998, the Congo war became known as "Africa's First World War" due to the scale of both the fighting and the human suffering. Seven different armies took sides in the combat while an estimated 2.5 million people, mostly poor Congolese, died from hunger or disease.
Previous peace initiatives, most notably the August 1999 Lusaka accords, subsequently foundered due to mutual mistrust and the belligerents' shared interest in looting the Congo's natural resources.
However in recent months almost all of the foreign actors - Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola - have withdrawn their forces, leaving only a couple of hundred Ugandan troops in the volatile north-eastern region of Ituri.
Yesterday's deal represents another diplomatic triumph for South Africa, which is carving out a role as an African peacemaker.