November 13 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Community of East African States (EAC) announced this Sunday that a new round of peace talks will be held on November 21 to try to put an end to the open conflict between the Congolese Army and the March 23 Movement (M23) in North Kivu province, in the east of the country.
The meeting will be held in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, although the EAC statement on its Twitter account does not specify the participants or the duration of the talks.
This announcement comes amid renewed fighting in recent hours in North Kivu, ever closer to the capital Goma, where tens of thousands of people have arrived in recent weeks to escape the fighting.
According to the United Nations, 188,000 people have left their homes since October 20, for a total of almost 240,000 since the start of this latest conflict, which has caused a diplomatic crisis between the DRC and Rwanda over Kigali’s alleged support for the armed group – – which the Rwandan authorities deny — and the intervention of a Kenyan support force.
The announcement also comes after several days of mediation efforts with the visit this Sunday to the DRC of the former Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta after the meetings on Saturday between the president of Angola, Joao Lourenço and his Congolese counterpart, Félix Tshisekedi. Lourenço had visited the Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, the day before.
