Regional military leaders of the seven countries of the Eastern African Community must meet on Sunday to “stabilize the region and restore peace”.
Le Monde With AFP
President Kenyan Uhuru Kenyatta called on Wednesday, June 15, to the deployment of a regional force in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in order to restore peace. “I call to mobilize the regional force of East Africa under the auspices of the Eastern African Community,” (EAC) said Kenyatta in a statement. The “open conflict” underway in this region threatens to derail the political efforts intended to restore order in this country of 90 million inhabitants, he added.
Regional military leaders of the seven EAC countries must meet on Sunday in order to develop preparations for the deployment of the regional force, underlined Mr. Kenyatta: “The regional force of Africa of the Is must be deployed immediately in the provinces of Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu in order to stabilize the region and restore peace. “
” Invasion “
The March 23 movement (M23), a dominant Tutsi rebellion defeated in 2013 by the Congolese army and the peacekeepers of the UN mission, took up arms at the end of 2021, blaming the Congolese authorities of Do not have respected an agreement for the demobilization and reintegration of its fighters.
Monday, the Congolese town in Bunagana, a trade center located on the Ugandan border, fell into the hands of these rebels. The Congolese army accused Rwanda of “invasion” of its territory.
Relations between the DRC and Rwanda have been tense since the massive arrival almost thirty years ago in the eastern DRC of Rwandan Hutu accused of having massacred Tutsi during the Rwandan genocide of 1994.
They had warmed up with the accession to power in the DRC, in January 2019, of Félix Tshisekedi, but the resurgence of the M23 and the intensification of the fighting in recent weeks have rekindled tensions.