President Felix Tshisekedi has appealed to his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame to "make peace" with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Tshisekedi, 62, issued the call as he took the podium after Kagame at the Global Gateway Forum, an investment conference in Belgium's capital Brussels.

"I call this forum as witness, and through it the entire world, to reach out my hand to you, Mr President, so that we may make peace," Tshisekedi said.

The eastern DRC, a region bordering Rwanda with abundant natural resources, has suffered extreme violence for more than three decades. Kinshasa claims Rwanda backs M23 rebel group, which is active in eastern DRC, but Kigali denies.

M23 seizes swathes of land in eastern DRC

The M23 rebel group, which resumed fighting at the end of 2021, has seized swathes of land in the region, triggering a spiralling humanitarian crisis.

Kagame, who was also present at the Brussels conference, did not address the conflict directly in his speech, although he referred to an earlier statement by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who said he could "feel the energy for making peace" when he saw the Rwandan and Congolese leaders.

"Some of us also felt the same. We felt the positive energy about business, investment, peace," Kagame said.

US-brokered peace deal

According to the United Nations, clashes in eastern DRC since January have caused thousands of deaths and forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes.

The Congolese government and M23 signed a declaration of principles on July 19 in Qatar that included a "permanent ceasefire" aimed at halting the conflict.

It followed a separate US-brokered peace deal between the Congolese and Rwandan governments signed in Washington in June.

But efforts to end the conflict have proved slow to take effect on the ground.

"Africa needs to move on, President Paul Kagame, and we are capable of doing so," Tshisekedi said, adding he would shelve a call for international sanctions on Rwanda to give talks a chance.