African leaders meet on DR Congo conflict

ETHIOPIA: African leaders from the Great Lakes region Saturday hailed Kinshasa’s improved ties with Rwanda as a means of helping end the long-running conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Their meeting on the eve of an African Union summit in the Ethiopian capital, had been designed to focus on peace talks between the Congolese government and rebels led by ethnic Tutsi ex-general Laurent Nkunda.

But in the past 10 days the situation on the ground in eastern DR Congo has changed dramatically.

On January 20, Congolese and Rwandan soldiers launched a joint offensive in the eastern DR Congo against another militant group, the Rwandan Hutu rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

And Nkunda, who had been ousted as leader by a rival, was arrested near the Congo-Rwanda border after falling from grace with his erstwhile backers in Kigali.

Faced with these developments, the meeting of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (CIRGL) noted the turn in relations between former rivals DR Congo and Rwanda, Kenya’s Foreign Minister Moses Mwetangula said after the two-hour meeting.

“The meeting noted the improvement in relations between Rwanda and the DRC... and the joint military operation between the two countries and the arrest of the rebel general Laurent Nkunda,” said Mwetangula at a press conference.

Addis Ababa, Sunday, AFP