The Congolese president asks his French counterpart not to move on the “theoretical” level and “put pressure” to resolve the crisis
March 4 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The presidents of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and France, Félix Tshisekedi and Emmanuel Macron, await the declaration next Tuesday “by all parties to the conflict” of a new ceasefire in the fighting between the Congolese army and the movement rebel of the M23, while the African president has asked his European counterpart for more pressure to accelerate a peace process that Macron prefers to leave for now in the hands of the African regional institutions.
Macron is in the DRC this Saturday as part of his African tour, in what is one of the main stops on his tour. The east of the country has been the scene of fighting between the Congolese army and the rebel group for months. The clashes have already left more than 600,000 displaced and generated a diplomatic crisis between the DRC and neighboring Rwanda, which has denied accusations of its alleged links to the rebels.
The French president has refused to explicitly link Kigali to the rebels this Saturday, but has referred to previous statements by the French Foreign Ministry, which do point to the Rwandan government. Macron has pointed to the Rwandan government to ask the authorities to “assume their responsibility” to prevent the east of the country “from becoming a spoils of war.”
“I have been very clear in my condemnation of the M23 and those who support it,” declared the president in statements reported by the national media before referring to the regional peace process in which the Angolan president, Joao Lourenço, acts as mediator. “The solution”, he has declared, “cannot come from France”.
For his part, the Congolese president has warned that the fighting is seriously affecting the electoral calendar with a view to holding general elections in the country, initially in December this year.
“The big problem we face in the north is that we need security to be able to continue with the electoral process. Otherwise, we run the risk of having a considerable delay that will affect the date of the elections,” he indicated.
Likewise, Tshisekedi has publicly asked Macron for greater French activity in resolving the crisis in the east of the country. “The messages from the French president are satisfactory but they are still theoretical. I ask France to put pressure on this,” he added in comments also collected by Radio France Internationale (RFI).
