GOMA, DR Congo (AFP) — Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta, a mediator in the conflict in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, appealed again on Wednesday for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
The former Kenyan president was speaking at a meeting in the eastern city of Goma in the conflict-torn region.
“We are not here to open new negotiations,” he told journalists after having met the Congolese authorities, UN representatives and western diplomats.
The mainly Tutsi M23 rebel force, which since last year has captured vast swathes of territory in DR Congo’s border region with Rwanda and Uganda, wants talks with the government as a precondition to any surrender.
The authorities in Kinshasa however have ruled out any dialogue with the force, calling for their unconditional surrender — and for the withdrawal of the Rwandan troops they say are helping them.
Kenyatta called for different regional peace initiatives to continue, so as “to ensure the people of the Congo are able to dialogue with each other to resolve the problems of this great nation”.
He also insisted that two million people forced to flee the conflict should be allowed to return safely and the sovereignty of the Democratic Republic of Congo be respected.
General Constant Ndima, governor of North Kivu province, which sits at the heart of the conflict, denounced the presence of Rwandan troops there in what he called “a useless war of aggression”.
He expressed his gratitude for the presence of the East African Community (EAC) force, which he said was acting as a buffer force between the M23 and Rwanda troops on one side, and Congolese soldiers and the militia supporting them.
In February, DRC’s president Felix Tshisekedi had denounced the EAC, which is made up of soldiers from Burundi, Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda, accusing it of “cohabiting” with the M23.
On July 7, the European Union also issued a statement condemning Rwanda’s military presence in DR Congo, calling on Kigali to pull its troops out and cease any support of the M23 force.
UN experts, the DRC government and several Western nations including the United States and France accuse Rwanda of actively backing the M23, despite denials from Kigali.
© Agence France-Presse