By Emmanuel Onyango
Heading into Wednesday’s summit of East African heads of state on the crisis in eastern DR Congo, prospects were bleak on any meaningful progress towards resolving the conflict.
Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi snubbed the regional summit all together. His Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame, made an early exit from the videoconference meeting in what has become a familiar pattern in relations between the two neighbours.
The escalation of violence in DRC has displaced more than 400,000 civilians in the past one month alone. That’s on top of more than seven million already uprooted from their communities in recent years, according to the UN.
The conflict started in the 1990s with numerous armed groups battling government forces and foreign peacekeeping troops.
The crisis is a decades-old puzzle and has defied local, regional and global solutions. Its complexity lies in the legacy of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda coupled with emerging security and economic interests.
The region has vast reserves of coltan and tantalum which are key components used in the manufacture of batteries and electronics worldwide. But little of it benefits the local population. UN experts have said illicit trade in the minerals has been done through Rwanda, a claim denies by Kigali.
President Kagame insists that putting the crisis in the proper context is important to finding solutions.
Kigali has repeatedly alluded to Hutu militia who were involved in the 1994 genocide against Tutsis in Rwanda. It believes some of them moved into neighbouring DR Congo after the genocide to form the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) that has been conducting attacks against Congolese Tutsis.
The M23 rebel group, which has seized vast territory in the latest crisis, claims to protect the interests of Congolese Tutsis. Many of its fighters are from North Kivu province, which borders Rwanda.
DRC government and the UN have often accused Rwanda of backing the rebels, including with arms and training. But Kigali denies the claims.
"M23 are not Rwandans,’’ Kagame told the East African Community (EAC) heads of state on Wednesday. “Whatever we are saying and whatever we intend to do, we (should) capture the context rightly and then proceed based on that, and maybe we can get somewhere,” he added.
“Otherwise I don’t see how we are going to contribute effectively to finding a solution.”
His counterparts at the EAC summit appeared to share his views and urged Congo's President Tshisekedi to “directly engage with all stakeholders, including the M23 and other armed groups that have grievances".
Previously planned talks between the Congolese government and the M23 rebels failed to hold.
It wasn't therefore surprising when, hours after the EAC summit, Tshisekedi emerged to rule out possibility for fresh talks and vowed to mount a "vigorous and coordinated" military response to reclaim territory seized by the rebels - who captured the eastern city of Goma earlier this week.
He also condemned the "inaction" of the international community in the face of an "unprecedented worsening of the security situation".
Southern African bloc SADC is also planning a summit on the security in eastern Congo. At least 17 of its peacekeeping troops were killed this week in clashes with the rebels. Most of the casualties were South African soldiers.
South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa has urged respect for Congo’s territorial integrity.
Angola’s President Joao Lourenco, who is the African Union (AU) mediator between DR Congo and Rwanda, has also called for the immediate withdrawal of ‘’Rwandan troops’’ from Congolese territory.
Lourenco urged the resumption of peace talks with the M23 and all other groups operating in Congolese territory.
Earlier at the UN Security Council, Congo’s Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwanba Wagner said there was an “urgent need for decisive action by the Council”.
“Words have not been enough to end the human suffering and the aggression and onslaught on Goma. It is now time for the Security Council to act... enough is enough," she told a press conference after Tuesday’s session of the council.
As the search for peace continues, clashes have eased in Goma on Thursday, with reports indicating that M23 fighters and Rwandan forces were visible on the streets.
Medical facilities are struggling to cope with the influx of wounded, the AFP news agency reports.
The UN's World Food Programme urged the international community and the Security Council to push for the cessation of violence.
“People need safe passage, they need roads to be opened up, they need to be with their families, they need safety. Most of all they need food,” WFP spokesperson in the DRC, Shelley Thakral, told TRT Afrika.
“We want to be able to do our job in a situation which is neutral, where we have unhindered access and where we can do this in an impartial way.”
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