Leaders agree joint force for DR Congo
NAIROBI: East African leaders agreed on Monday to send in a regional force to try to end fighting in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and called for an immediate ceasefire.
The move was announced by the Kenyan presidency after the sevenmember East African Community held talks in Nairobi on an upsurge of violence in the volatile region that has ensnared neighbouring countries.
“The heads of state instructed that the regional force should, in cooperation with the military and administrative forces of the DRC, seek to stabilise and secure the peace in the DRC,” President Uhuru Kenyatta’s office said in a statement.
“The heads of state directed that an immediate ceasefire should be enforced and cessation of hostilities should commence immediately.”
The vast mineral-rich DRC is struggling to contain dozens of armed groups in the east, many of which are a legacy of two regional wars a quarter of a century ago.
A recent flare-up of heavy fighting in the east has revived decades-old animosities between Kinshasa and Kigali, with the DRC blaming neighbouring Rwanda for a resurgence of the M23 militia.
Rwanda has repeatedly denied backing the rebels, while both countries have accused each other of carrying out cross-border shelling.
The Kenyan statement did not say whether Rwandan troops would be involved in the regional force — but the government in Kinshasa insisted it would not accept their presence.
Both DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwanda’s Paul Kagame were at the meeting hosted by Mr Kenyatta, along with the leaders of Burundi, South Sudan and Uganda, and Tanzania’s ambassador to Nairobi.
Kagame was in attendance even though Rwanda is hosting dozens of leaders from across the globe at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) later this week.
African Union Commission chief Moussa Faki Mahamat welcomed the outcome of the talks on Twitter. “I urge the immediate implementation of their decisions in order to restore peace in Eastern DRC,” he added.