Uhuru calls for regional troops to counter DR Congo militants
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has called for the deployment of an East African force to restore security in the troubled east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In a statement, he also called for an “immediate cessation of all hostilities for all armed groups, both foreign and local, to lay down arms immediately and unconditionally” amid heavy fighting in recent weeks.
The East African Regional Force is to be deployed immediately to the regions of Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu to enforce peace in coordination with resident UN forces (Monusco), he said.
He added that a meeting of commanders of the defence forces of East African countries on Sunday in Nairobi “should” finalise preparations for the deployment.
The decision to establish the regional force was made in April when Kenyatta, the current East African Community (EAC) chairman, hosted regional presidents over the DR Congo crisis that also threatens neighbouring countries.
The EAC is made up of seven countries - Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, South Sudan and DR Congo.
More than 100 local and foreign groups operate in South Kivu, North Kivu and Ituri and have destabilised the wider region for more than two decades. Since March, fighting between the Congolese army and M23 rebels has displaced more than 80,000 people.
DR Congo has accused Rwanda of supporting the group made up of mainly ethnic Congolese Tutsi, but the government in Kigali denies the accusations.
The DRC decided late Wednesday to ask its government to “suspend all protocol agreements, agreements and conventions” concluded with Rwanda, a new episode of the diplomatic spat between the two neighbouring countries, provoked and fueled by Kigali’s alleged support for the March 23 Movement (M23).
Protocol suspensions
As rebels of the M23 have been on the offensive in northeastern DRC since late March and reportedly occupied a key town since Monday. Kinshasa made the decision to “suspend all protocol agreements, agreements and conventions” concluded with Rwanda, according to an official statement, released after a national defence meeting held late Wednesday chaired by the Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi.
This is the second national defence meeting chaired by Tshisekedi since M23’s resurgence in late March. At the last meeting in late May, DRC classified the M23 as a terrorist group and decided to suspend all flights of RwandAir, the flag carrier airline of Rwanda, to the DRC soil.
Stemming from a former Congolese rebellion, the M23, created in April 2012, quickly gained international notoriety when it occupied the city of Goma, capital of North Kivu, for 10 days in November 2012. After its defeat by the army in 2013, the M23 signed a peace accord with the government in December 2013, in which it agreed to demobilize its fighters and transform itself into a political party.
However, M23 now accuses the Kinshasa authorities of not respecting the commitments. Since late March, M23 has been on the offensive in the North Kivu province, with thousands of civilians displaced by still ongoing fighting. Bunagana, a key strategic town bordering Uganda, reportedly fell into the hands of rebels on Monday.
Besides the haunting nightmare of the M23, Kinshasa now faces a diplomatic tug of war with Kigali, with the latter having been accused of supporting the M23 rebels. In early June, Felix Tshisekedi publicly claimed that there was “no doubt” that Rwanda was backing the M23 on the Congolese territory.
