The continent is banking on ongoing regional peace efforts - the EAC-led Nairobi peace process and the Luanda process - to resolve the security crisis in eastern DR Congo, the African Union Commission Chairperson has noted.
Amb. Moussa Faki Mahamat said this while delivering his remarks at the 42nd Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the African Union (AU) on Wednesday, February 15, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
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For two days, the Council will consider the draft agenda, draft decisions and declarations with appropriate recommendations for consideration by the Heads of State and Government during their 36th Ordinary Session of the Assembly scheduled for February 18 and 19.
Mahamat said that Africa has put in place two mechanisms to bring peace and reconciliation in the Great Lakes region, notably in the eastern DR Congo region which is facing recurrent crises.
"The mediation of AU under the leadership of the Angolan president continues to provide help to the concerned parties. On his side, the former President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, in charge of conducting the Nairobi peace process prepared dialogues between the Congolese government and the active rebel movements in the region," he said.
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"This process calls for a military mission in the eastern DR Congo, of which the first troops were already deployed. We have hope that these two African mechanisms will resolve this crisis and demonstrate that only peaceful solutions initiated by Africans can address the crises and conflicts on the continent."
The resurgence of the M23 rebellion has overshadowed the presence of more than 130 armed groups in eastern DR Congo, including the FDLR. The latter is a Rwandan genocidal militia group founded by the former government forces and militia that committed the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
The Congolese army is fighting the M23 alongside FDLR, which was sanctioned by the Security Council in 2013. The genocidal militia was earlier designated as a terrorist group by the United States.
The FDLR which is now integrated in the Congolese army poses an existential security threat to Rwanda and the region.
Instead of committing to regional peace efforts, Kinshasa has refused to dialogue with the M23 rebels - a Congolese rebel group fighting for its right to citizenship and the security of its community.
Among others, the Luanda agreement signed in November 2022, under the leadership of Angolan President João Lourenço, the AU designated mediator, directed the M23 rebels to "withdraw to its initial positions, as per the Extraordinary Meeting of the Chiefs of General Staff of the EAC Armed Forces of November 8, 2022."
The M23 rebels, one of the more than 130 armed groups in the region, have pulled out of some territories they previously captured - including Kibumba and Rumangabo military camp - in order to give peace efforts, as set under the Luanda roadmap, a chance.
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By and large, the biggest roadblock to peace in the region is Kinshasa's refusal to implement existing roadmaps. The latter, which include the Luanda roadmap and the Nairobi process, demand that DR Congo disarm all armed groups and engage in dialogue toward a sustainable solution.
Instead, besides Kinshasa aligning itself with FDLR - a Rwandan genocidal militia formed by remnants of the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi - the Congolese government also continued to alienate the M23 rebels, thereby reducing the prospects for peace.
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In October 2022, Human Rights Watch reported that between May and August 2022, the Congolese army with a coalition of Congolese militia as well as the FDLR fought against the M23 rebels in North Kivu province.
Human Rights Watch received credible information that Congolese army members from Tokolonga's 3411th regiment provided more than a dozen boxes of ammunition to FDLR fighters in Kazaroho, one of their strongholds in the Virunga National Park, on July 21. Two months earlier, dozens of FDLR and CMC/FDP fighters took part in a large counteroffensive with government soldiers in the area around Rumangabo and Rugari.
One FDLR fighter told Human Rights Watch that he witnessed four transfers of ammunition. "It's the government [troops] that would always provide us with ammunition," he said.
"They also gave us uniforms and boots."
