ARUSHA, Tanzania
The East African Community peacekeeping force will leave eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after December 8, but the bloc will remain involved in the quest for peace in troubled region, the heads of state have said.
A dispatch after the 23rd
Heads of State Summit held in Arusha on Friday confirmed that Kinshasa will not
extend the term of the East African Community Regional Force (EACRF), although
they haven’t quelled the conflict yet. Their mission is to be taken over by the
Southern African Development Community (SADC) forces.
Nonetheless, the East African
leaders have expressed their commitment to remain part and parcel of the
efforts to restore calm in the eastern part of the country, if not for any
other reason but for the stability and shared prosperity of the region.
While handing over the
leadership of the bloc to South Sudan’s Salva Kiir, Burundi President Evariste
Ndayishimiye said the continued fighting in DRC poses significant risks for the
region, especially for the countries that neighbour it.
“The fluid security situation
in eastern DRC has been a source of unease, particularly for the five EAC
partner states that share borders with DRC, not only due to the concentration
of the groups that may destabilise our partner states, but also the humanitarian
consequence which caused a spillover of displaced persons across the borders,”
he said.
President Ndayishimiye
credited the full deployment of the EACRF with the semblance of peace in the
troubled regions of DRC, but acknowledged that “there has also been a challenge
which requires give-and-take for the peace to hold.”
Evidently, the stay of the
EACRF troops has neither benefited the residents of the troubled regions nor
the government, with persistent citizen protests, demanding for the exit of the
peacekeepers.
Bad blood has also developed
between Presidents Felix Tshisekedi of DRC and Paul Kagame of Rwanda, with the
former constantly a pointing finger at Kigali for allegedly supporting the
rebels causing chaos in the east.
Last month, the ceasefire
between the rebels and government forces, brokered by Kenya’s former President
Uhuru Kenyatta through the Nairobi process last year, was violated and the
conflict has returned to initial levels.
President Ndayishimiye said
the region must do all possible to bring an end to the war.
Ostensibly, this “appropriate
mechanism” will involve a meeting between the EAC chiefs of defence forces and
their counterparts from SADC, which the heads of state ordered to happen before
December 8, when EACRF is supposed to leave DRC.
Peter Mathuki, EAC secretary
general, said the summit agreed the CDFs will “submit their recommendations on
the way forward to the defence ministers for onwards transmission to the summit
for consideration.”
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