Jan. 13 (EUROPA PRESS) –
Former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta held a meeting on Thursday with a delegation from the March 23 Movement (M23) rebel group to discuss a possible solution to the situation in North Kivu.
Kenyatta, in his capacity as facilitator of the East African Community (EAC) Peace Process for the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), has met with Bertrand Bisimwa, one of the leaders of the rebel movement, as well as other senior leaders of the M23, as detailed in a statement by the former president’s office.
The meeting, which took place in the Kenyan city of Mombasa, is in line with the ongoing peace dialogue led by EAC in Nairobi between various Congolese armed groups and the DRC government, aimed at restoring peace and security in the East of the country.
The meeting takes place a week after the M23 confirmed that it would withdraw from the Congolese town of Rumangabo, located in the east of the country and which has a strategic military base, after taking it in October as part of its offensive on the zone.
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 with the Army since 2012, with the support of United Nations troops.
The situation has led to an uptick in tensions between the DRC and Rwanda as Kinshasa accuses Kigali of supporting the rebels. 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.
