posted at: 2/1/2009
Source ::: AFP
addis ababa:
African leaders from the Great Lakes region were meeting yesterday in Addis Ababa to discuss the rapidly changing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The meeting, held on the eve of the African Union (AU) summit in the Ethiopian capital, had been designed as peace talks between the Congolese government in Kinshasa and rebels led by ethnic Tutsi Laurent Nkunda.
But just days ago, on January 20, Congolese and Rwandan soldiers launched a joint offensive in the eastern DRC, officially against the Rwandan Hutu rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).
However, Nkunda became the raid’s first casualty and was arrested near the border after falling from grace with his erstwhile backers in Kigali.
The renegade general’s arrest and extradition have turned the Addis meeting on its head, and the summit of the Great Lakes Region on the DR Congo now aims to “examine the progress made toward finding solutions to the security situation in the eastern DRC,” according to a statement.
Eleven countries were taking part in the talks — Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville), the DRC, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, according to the statement.
“Despite these latest developments in the DR Congo, which seem to indicate very encouraging possibilities for ending hostilities, the humanitarian situation for the people remains uncertain and worrying,” said Jean Ping, the head of the African Union commission.
Major fighting broke out in August in the eastern DRC between the army and Nkunda’s rebels, causing tens of thousands more residents to flee in a region already torn by conflict. Intense international pressure led to the opening of talks on December 8 in Nairobi between Nkunda’s forces and the Congolese government.
Since the launch of the joint DRC-Rwanda operation, the UN mission in the DRC, known as MONUC, said that Rwandan Hutu rebels had begun returning home.
The meeting, held on the eve of the African Union (AU) summit in the Ethiopian capital, had been designed as peace talks between the Congolese government in Kinshasa and rebels led by ethnic Tutsi Laurent Nkunda.
But just days ago, on January 20, Congolese and Rwandan soldiers launched a joint offensive in the eastern DRC, officially against the Rwandan Hutu rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).
However, Nkunda became the raid’s first casualty and was arrested near the border after falling from grace with his erstwhile backers in Kigali.
The renegade general’s arrest and extradition have turned the Addis meeting on its head, and the summit of the Great Lakes Region on the DR Congo now aims to “examine the progress made toward finding solutions to the security situation in the eastern DRC,” according to a statement.
Eleven countries were taking part in the talks — Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville), the DRC, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, according to the statement.
“Despite these latest developments in the DR Congo, which seem to indicate very encouraging possibilities for ending hostilities, the humanitarian situation for the people remains uncertain and worrying,” said Jean Ping, the head of the African Union commission.
Major fighting broke out in August in the eastern DRC between the army and Nkunda’s rebels, causing tens of thousands more residents to flee in a region already torn by conflict. Intense international pressure led to the opening of talks on December 8 in Nairobi between Nkunda’s forces and the Congolese government.
Since the launch of the joint DRC-Rwanda operation, the UN mission in the DRC, known as MONUC, said that Rwandan Hutu rebels had begun returning home.
- Et voici une évolution des choses tout à fait intéressante: le chef de la Jamahiriya lybienne est le nouveau président de l'UA. N'ayant pas pu se mettre d'accord sur son pet project, ils l'ont élu président. Il a une année pour le faire avancer avec plein pouvoir? http://www.congotribune.com/politique/article.php?article=2806
2 comments:
Yes Kadafi is a friend of Nkunda.
>http://mcdd.populus.org/
And as boss of AU, he might obamise AU. So all those worms so far winding for Europe and baksheesh will have some trouble sitting on the wrong horse. If not in Kinshasa, so in Madagaskar the vulture regime has broken away not without insult from AU at last minute. But the epidemic besides cholera is everywhere and AU got beaten up in Somalia. Let us wait and see what is the answer of Khadafi.
L.
I did not know they were friends!!!!
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