On Monday, East African leaders met in Kenya to examine the security situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) east, which is wracked by conflict.
The meeting takes place as intense combat reignites decades-old animosities between Kinshasa and Kigali, with the DRC blaming Rwanda for the M23 militia’s recent comeback.
Rwanda has denied supporting the rebels on numerous occasions, while both governments have accused one other of conducting cross-border shelling.
Following weeks of sabre-rattling, the presidents of six of the East African Community’s (EAC) seven nations met in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, to discuss the way forward.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame and DRC President Felix Tshisekedi joined the leaders of Burundi, Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda as well as Tanzania’s ambassador to Nairobi.
“The crisis in Congo need(s) a collective approach from all regional members of the East African Community,” Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said on Twitter after the meeting got under way.
“We must insist on working together because these people have suffered a lot,” said Museveni.
His government has sent in troops to help Congolese forces fight the Allied Democratic Forces, a militia group blamed for thousands of deaths in eastern Congo and a string of bombings in the Ugandan capital Kampala.
– Call for British pressure –
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta called for the deployment of a regional EAC force in eastern DRC to restore peace after M23 rebels grabbed the border town of Bunagana, but Kinshasa refused to accept Rwanda’s participation in the operation.
Tshisekedi has accused Rwanda of attempting to “take our territory, rich in gold, coltan, and cobalt, for their own exploitation and profit,” and has called on the international community to denounce the Rwandan government.
He has encouraged the United Kingdom in particular to “push Rwanda to withdraw its troops from our soil,” referring to the United Kingdom’s contentious deal to deport asylum seekers to Kigali.
“Given the United Kingdom’s recent $150 million immigration deal with Rwanda, we hope Prime Minister Boris Johnson can use his clout,” Tshisekedi added.
Rwanda is due to host the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting this week.
The mineral-rich DRC is battling dozens of armed factions in the country’s east, many of which are the result of two regional wars a quarter-century ago.
The M23, or “March 23 Movement,” is a predominantly Congolese Tutsi militia that rose to international prominence in 2012 after capturing Goma.
Soon after, it was driven out in a coordinated operation by UN soldiers and the Congolese army.
After accusing the Kinshasa administration of breaking a 2009 agreement that included integrating its militants into the army, the group took up guns again in late November.
Relations between Kinshasa and Kigali have been strained since the mass arrival in the DRC of Rwandan Hutus accused of slaughtering Tutsis during the 1994 Rwanda genocide.