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17 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The heads of state of the East African Community (EAC) have called this Friday during a summit held in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, for the “orderly” withdrawal of all armed groups, in reference to the rebel March 23 Movement (M23 ), from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) before March 30.
The EAC has demanded, at the end of the summit, “an immediate ceasefire” in the region, as well as the importance of resettling internally displaced persons as soon as possible. In this sense, the agency has recommended the repatriation to the DRC of refugees who remain in Rwanda and Uganda.
The meeting, prior to an African Union summit, was attended by the presidents of the DRC, Félix Tshisekedi, and Rwanda, Paul Kagame, as well as their Kenyan, Tanzanian, and Burundian counterparts: William Ruto, Samia Suluhu, and Evariste Ndayishimiye, respectively. .
“The security situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo requires a concerted effort from the region. We urge all parties to embrace dialogue for the stability and prosperity of the DRC,” Ruto said on his Twitter profile.
The M23 has been accused since November 2021 of carrying out attacks against Army positions in North Kivu, despite the Congolese authorities and the M23 signing a peace agreement in December 2013 after fighting since 2012 with the Army, with the support of United Nations troops.
The situation has led to an uptick in tensions between the DRC and Rwanda, which accuses Kinshasa of backing the Forces démocratiques pour la libération du Rwanda (FDLR) — an armed rebel group founded and composed mainly of Hutus responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda– and allow them to attack Congolese Tutsis.
United Nations experts affirmed in a recent report that the Rwandan authorities maintain a “direct intervention” in the African country through their support for the group and pointed to a “collusion” between the Army, the FLDR and the Mai-Mai militias.
