The Rwanda-backed M23 group has said it would not attend Tuesday's peace talks with the DR Congo government in the Angolan capital Luanda following EU sanctions on some of its top brass.

But Kinshasa said it would participate despite the M23's announced no-show.

Tina Salama, the spokesperson for DRC President Felix Tshisekedi told AFP: "The Congolese delegation has left Kinshasa for Luanda. We will respond to the invitation for mediation" by Angola.

The M23, which has taken vast swathes of the DRC's mineral-rich east, on Monday accused "certain international institutions" of "deliberately sabotaging peace efforts", referring notably to sanctions imposed by the European Union on some of its members.

Ceasefire calls not heeded

On Monday, the EU sanctioned three Rwandan military commanders and its mining agency chief over their support for armed fighters in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as well as senior members of the M23, including its head, Bertrand Bisimwa.

The peace talks were scheduled to start on Tuesday in Luanda, where Angolan President Joao Lourenco has been appointed by the African Union to mediate in the conflict.

Numerous calls from the international community for a ceasefire have fallen on deaf ears.

Since January, the M23 – made up primarily of Congolese Tutsis – has seized the key cities of Goma and Bukavu in a lightning advance that has killed more than 7,000 people, according to a toll from the DRC.

Rwanda's alleged support

AFP has not been able to verify the figure independently.

A United Nations report has said Kigali effectively controls M23 and has around 4,000 troops backing it in order to exploit the region's valuable minerals such as gold and coltan.

Rwanda denies providing the M23 with military assistance but says it faces a threat from the FDLR group in the eastern DRC that was founded by Hutu leaders involved in the 1994 Rwandan genocide of the Tutsis.

Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame were supposed to meet in Luanda in mid-December for direct talks but they could not agree on the terms and the summit was called off at the last minute.

Last talks between DRC and M23

The last time Kinshasa and the M23 held talks was in 2013.

The armed group had captured Goma in 2012 but was militarily defeated the following year by Congolese armed forces supported by UN peacekeepers.