KINSHASA, DR Congo
Kenyan President William Ruto says a new East African Community force will ‘impose’ peace on warring groups in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
He was speaking after holding
talks with his Congolese counterpart, Felix Tshisekedi, while on a one-day
official visit to the DRC amid efforts to try to bring peace to the country.
‘There are a lot of (UN)
peacekeeping troops in the region,’ he said, ‘but we think there is not much
peace to keep.’
Ruto suggested that the East
African troops would be more forceful, saying the regional force would ‘impose
peace on those who are hellbent on creating instability’.
Kenya is one of several
nations that are contributing troops to a, tasked with trying to calm deadly
tensions fuelled by armed groups in the troubled eastern DRC. The region has
been plagued by violence from multiple armed groups for nearly 30 years.
The first of over 900 Kenyan
soldiers have already arrived in Goma, the capital of North Kivu, which is
under threat from an offensive by M23 rebels. The largely Congolese Tutsi
militia has seized large swathes of territory in the region.
Ruto and Tshisekedi were also expected to discuss various other areas of mutual interest, including trade and investments, and regional integration.
The M23, a largely Congolese
Tutsi militia, has seized swathes of territory across North Kivu province,
edging towards the region’s main city of Goma.
The fighting has reignited
regional tensions, with the DRC accusing its smaller neighbour Rwanda of backing
the M23, something that UN experts and US officials have also said in recent
months.
The mandate has been
communicated to the African Union and the UN Security Council, he said.
The force is expected to
include soldiers from Burundi, Uganda and South Sudan, as well as from Kenya.
But its intended total size remains unclear.
The UN’s peacekeeping force in
eastern DRC, known as MONUSCO, has a current strength of about 16,000 uniformed
personnel.
But many in the DRC see the
peacekeepers as ineffective.
At least 262,000 people have
been displaced by the fighting, the UN estimated last week.
The M23 is just one of around
120 armed groups which are active in eastern Congo.
Many of them are a legacy of
regional wars that flared before the turn of the century. - Africa
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