The Community of East African States recommends the full deployment of international forces in eastern DRC

10 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The mediator of the Community of East African States for the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Uhuru Kenyatta, has called for the full deployment of international forces in the region to try to contain the hostilities between the Congolese Army and the March 23 Movement (M23) rebels, amid difficult diplomatic efforts to end a crisis that has driven half a million people from their homes in the past year and a half.

The Kenyan mediator and former president calls on the so-called East African Community Regional Force (EARCF) to order a deployment “without delay” throughout “the entire eastern DRC” to “interpose between the sides in conflict” and guarantee security in the areas where the fighting has ended, according to a statement published by the portal ‘The East African’.

Kenyatta made this statement after an emergency summit of East African heads of state was held in Burundi last weekend – which the mediator was unable to attend due to logistical problems – and which, in principle, concluded with a commitment to reinforce the peace plan for the Congolese region and reach a diplomatic solution between DRC and Rwanda, accused by its Congolese neighbor of aiding the rebel group, something that the Rwandan government has categorically denied.

Despite the good auspices of the meeting, the President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, this week again accused his Congolese counterpart, Félix Tshisekedi, of having “disgraced” several of the agreements signed to tackle the diplomatic crisis, including precisely the last one signed on Saturday night in the Burundian city of Bujumbura. The following day, a ‘blue helmet’ from the UN mission died and another was seriously injured by an attack on a helicopter belonging to the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the country, MONUSCO, from which the M23 and the Congolese Army they blamed each other.

Although there is currently an EARCF contingent in the east of the country, the population of North Kivu has protested on several occasions against the passivity of the international forces, made up almost entirely of Kenyan soldiers, while waiting for the arrival of reinforcements from South Sudan and Burundi, and who have not yet engaged in combat against the rebels.