Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe met a three-member Rwandan delegation on November 17 and discussed the cease-fire agreement signed in Zambian capital Lusaka four months ago for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

After his meeting with Mugabe, Rwandan Minister of State in the President Office Patrick Mazimhaka told reporters that they discussed among other issues the Lusaka peace accord and how they could map a way forward in implementing and seeing that countries abided by the rules of the peace accord.

Mazimhaka said he obtained first-hand information about the progress of the implementation of the Lusaka peace accord from Zimbabwean Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge, who is Chairman of the Joint Military Commission, a body comprising of representatives from all the belligerent forces involved in the DRC conflict.

Since the signing of the cease-fire pact, DRC rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda, and the forces of Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia which supported President Laurent Kabila's government had not stopped fighting.

Mazimhaka confirmed that the fighting continuing in the DRC was much more serious than before the signing of the cease-fire agreement.

"The whole cease-fire violations have degenerated into a new war in the Congo," he said.

However, the Rwandan official expressed optimism that although the cease- fire agreement had been violated on numerous occasions, it had not collapsed as warring parties were determined to see it holding.

Mazimhaka said he was hopeful the situation in the DRC would soon improve following a Joint Military Commission meeting held in Lusaka last week and another one to be held in Harare next week to discuss on the implementation of the peace accord.