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- DRC's Felix Tshisekedi urges the East African Community regional force to engage the people and stop giving M23 an advantage.
- EAC leaders agreed to immediately deploy South Sudan and Uganda armies into the DRC.
- Human Rights Watch says M23 carries out atrocities supported by Rwanda and the DRC is working with militias to resist.
The East African Community (EAC) heads of state met over the weekend for their 20th extraordinary summit in what they said was a "cordial and friendly atmosphere" in Bujumbura, Burundi, to find a solution to the ongoing conflict in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
This was one of a few meetings in recent times that had Rwandan President Paul Kagame and his DRC counterpart Felix Tshisekedi in attendance.
Before the summit, the two leaders were due to be hosted by Qatari diplomats in Doha last month on the same issue of the conflict in the DRC. However, Tshisekedi pulled out at the last minute.
It was not the first such incident, during the US Africa Leaders' Summit in December in Washington DC, the two leaders didn't meet as Tshisekedi avoided a meeting of EAC leaders gathered to discuss the conflict in his country.
But in Bujumbura, Tshisekedi was in attendance, and a clip from the summit where he complained to the commander of the EAC force about what he felt was support for M23 rebels has since gone viral.
He also claimed that once the EAC force lost the people's support they would turn on it.
"Don't favour the M23. It would be a shame if the population took it out on you. You have come to help us and not to have problems, be attentive to this, communicate with the population," he said in Portuguese to the force's commander Major General Jeff Nyagah.
A report released today by Human Rights Watch (HRW) maintains that the M23 rebels were backed by Rwanda. Various other institutions, such as the United Nations, noted that the DRC government had in turn collaborated with other militia groups in the region to respond to M23.
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“Rwanda-backed M23 rebels in North Kivu are leaving behind a growing trail of war crimes against civilians.
“Rwanda should end its military support for the M23 while Congolese government troops should prioritise protecting civilians and cease using abusive militias as proxy forces," said Thomas Fessy, senior Congo researcher at Human Rights Watch.
For its part, the M23, an outfit designated as a terrorist group by the US and the DRC, claims to be protecting local populations and says the DRC government was using the conflict as an excuse to make the country ungovernable and compromise the upcoming elections in December.
The EAC Summit reiterated that the conflict can "only be sustainably resolved through a political process and emphasised the need for enhanced dialogue among all the parties".
But as the summit ended, a helicopter flying from Beni to Goma in the North Kivu province came under fire leaving one South African peacekeeper dead and another seriously hurt.
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The crew managed to land the chopper successfully in Goma.
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General António Guterres, said the act may constitute a war crime under international law and should be immediately investigated.
The attack was suspected to have been carried out by M23 rebels as the outfit "re-emerged from its hideouts and embarked on a blood-soaking offensive" on Monday in East and Central Africa, according to media reports.
With the capacity to down aircraft, a UN report claims Rwanda armed M23 with high-tech arms of war.
Renewed onslaught by the M23 will likely be met by the EAC army after the summit resolved that every country contributing forces should immediately "deploy" and the DRC must "immediately facilitate the deployment of troops from the Republic of South Sudan, and the Republic of Uganda.
The News24 Africa Desk is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation. The stories produced through the Africa Desk and the opinions and statements that may be contained herein do not reflect those of the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
