NEW YORK, US
The Democratic Republic of Congo says it is ready to welcome regional troops to start a planned operation against rebels who have caused civilians untold suffering.
The first contingent to arrive
under this arrangement will be the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF), who have since
last week been deploying their logistical support systems.
DRC President Félix Tshisekedi
says Kenyan soldiers will "soon” arrive in the DRC as part of the East
African Community regional force that will help DR Congo fight insecurity in
North and South Kivu, and Ituri provinces.
“I told you that the force is
being deployed. The Burundians are already there in South Kivu,” he said in New
York, on Monday, where he has been attending the 77th UN General Assembly.
“For the Kenyans, in my
opinion, it is a matter of days. They are going to enter via Bunagana, for your
information. So, it's being deployed little by little, depending on the means.
That is why we were here and why we made contacts; it was to sensitise donors
to support this regional force.”
The Kenyan contingent will
enter the DRC by tackling a hot zone in Bunagana, near the border with Uganda.
The area has been under the M23 rebels since June 14 in the group’s renewed
fighting after a long lull.
Congolese Defence Minister Gilbert Kabanda said that the “East African regional force has been deploying materials through Uganda since September 19 via the Kasindi border.”
The regional forces are
expected to be made up of contingents from Uganda, Kenya, South Sudan and
Tanzania. Burundian forces have already been deployed in Congo, in the province
of South Kivu, since August 15, under an earlier bilateral arrangement that has
since been accommodated in the EAC Concept of Operations (Conops).
Eastern DRC is infested with
hundreds of local and foreign armed groups. The DRC, which joined the East
African Community in May, hopes to defeat insecurity and terrorism in its
eastern provinces. Only Rwanda will not deploy its troops due to a simmering
diplomatic row in which Kinshasa has accused Kigali of supporting M23 rebels,
allegations that Rwanda denies.
The troops will initially be
deployed for six months but their task will also involve marketing their
presence to be accepted by local civilians who recently protested against
peacekeepers from the UN (Monusco) for failing to tame rebel massacres.
Monusco is supposed to start
departing the country as African countries ask for more focus to be turned on
rebuilding the Congolese army and other national institutions.
At the UN General Assembly,
Félix Tshisekedi again accused Rwanda of supporting rebels, but his counterpart
Paul Kagame said: “It is no use casting aspersions on anyone. These challenges are
not insurmountable. We can find solutions. These solutions would be much less
costly in financial and human terms. The international community can help us
solve this problem.”
“It has been proven that
regional or bilateral initiatives make a big difference, whether in the Central
African Republic or in the successful engagement of Rwanda and the Southern
African Development Community to contain violent extremism in northern
Mozambique. If this approach were properly tested in the DRC, as proposed by the
Nairobi process (peace talks between the Congolese government and armed
groups), it would make a difference,” added the Rwandan head of state.
For Bertrand Bisimwa, chairman
of the M23, the Congolese president has chosen war over dialogue.
“When President Tshisekedi
ignores the easy dialogue with his own citizens to embrace the meanderings of
war, which is costly in every way and whose outcome is unknown, is this
responsible? Are his objectives really pacifist or populist or electoral?” -
Nation
No comments:
Post a Comment