KAMPALA: The African Union called yesterday on rebels occupying a key town in eastern DR Congo to halt their offensive, as diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis continued amid fears of wider regional conflict and a deteriorating humanitarian situation.
The AU echoed a call by regional heads of state at a summit Saturday for the M23 rebels to stop fighting and withdraw from the regional capital of Goma, and welcomed a commitment by the DR Congo government to resolve the rebels’ grievances.
AU chief Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma “welcomes the commitment of the government of the DRC to listen, evaluate and resolve any legitimate grievances of the M23. She urges the M23 immediately to take the steps expected of it, ” the AU said in a statement.
“The summit... outlined a 10-point plan that provides for the immediate withdrawal of the M23 elements from all the locations they recently occupied, as well as the establishment of security arrangements to monitor the situation on the ground,” it added.
Dlamini-Zuma, who attended Saturday’s regional summit in Kampala, reiterated the “AU’s deep concern at the worsening humanitarian situation on the ground and the abuses committed against the civilian populations.”
The M23’s advance has displaced tens of thousands of civilians, sparked warnings of humanitarian disaster, and raised fears that a wider conflict could again erupt in the area, the cradle of back-to-back wars that shook the central African giant from 1996 to 2002.
President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, whose country has been accused by the UN and Kinshasa not just of backing but of effectively running the M23 rebels, issued a statement with his Congo Republic counterpart Denis Sassou-Nguesso in which they “welcomed the comprehensive resolutions of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region summit in Kampala.” “They called upon the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the M23 (rebels) to commit to implementing the Kampala decisions,” the statement said.
The political leader of the M23, Bishop Jean-Marie Runiga Lugerero, had said he expected to hold further talks Sunday with DR Congo President Joseph Kabila after meeting him on Saturday after the summit of the 11-member International Conference on the Great Lakes.
But Kabila returned to Kinshasa on Sunday and it was not clear if the two men had met again.
Leaders at Saturday’s summit in the Ugandan capital said the rebels should withdraw within two days to positions at least 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of the city, which the guerrillas — former army soldiers who staged a mutiny in April — seized on Tuesday.
Runiga Lugerero, however, made it clear that any withdrawal would only come after talks between the rebel movement and Kabila and he warned that the M23 fighters will defend their positions if government troops attack.
A group of NGOs from eastern DR Congo accused Kinshasa of “bowing down to aggressor states” at the Kampala summit, without mentioning by name either Rwanda or Uganda, which has also been accused of backing M23 and which also denies the accusations.
“The Kinshasa government has betrayed the people of North Kivu by bowing to the demands of the aggressor states,” the NGOs said, adding that the resolutions from the conference “lend legitimacy to M23 whilst humiliating the Congolese nation.” A reporter in Goma said M23 rebels were still present in the lakeside city and that troops from the United Nations peacekeeping mission MONUSCO were also more visible than in previous days.
A Western diplomat in the region said Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni had agreed to meet directly with M23’s military leader Sultani Makenga, who was hit this month with US and UN sanctions.
Kagame, an ethnic Tutsi, has persistently rejected accusations that his government is backing — and effectively running — the mainly Tutsi M23 force.
A report by UN experts last week said the M23’s “de facto chain of command” includes Bosco Ntaganda, a Rwandan wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, and “culminates” with Rwandan Defense Minister James Kabarebe.
Museveni has also sought to distance himself from the charges of backing the M23 by playing the role of mediator in the crisis.
AU calls on DR Congo rebels to stop fighting
