Peaceful change of leadership is the solution to conflict in Africa

Editor,Reference is made to the article, “Rwanda troops arrive in CAR in 10 days” (The New Times, January 9).I thank Rwanda Defence Forces for this great move to send peacekeepers to Central African Republic (CAR). If there’s anyone who doesn’t believe in the success story of Rwanda in these past 20 years, he should look at CAR and Darfur. Chances are that if we never had the right leadership, we would have found ourselves entangled in the same story.People should learn from each other; why would you sink your country to a similar mayhem that happened within the same region? When I read the history of the conflict, it made me think if there is any institute that can help take somewhat similar case study like that of Rwanda and share it with all leadership academies across Africa so that people understand that, even in the deepest end of a tragedy, you can pull back a people to hope.It also made me wonder, is Africa the best continent in violence? Have we not had enough of it? Can we at least take a break and resume it later if it’s necessary? I dream of a day when we will not have a single gun sound on this continent.God needs to help African leaders think through these issues that are crippling our economies. We need to take a couple of resolutions to avoid this once and for all. Here are my thoughts and suggestions to resolve the conflicts on the continent:An early warning system is needed to help proactive intervention. Stop keeping peace when thousands of innocent civilians are already dead and lots of public infrastructures destroyed.One single intervention brigade should be on standby to punish people who just lose a job and think that they should go to the bushes to spill blood.The best option would be to call for dialogue and third party mediation. I mean neutral mediation that understands the roots of the problem– not distant friends who want to escalate the problem.A standard approach to resolving conflicts that really analyses the cause and avoids killing opponents and innocent civilians because one party does not want to talk but wants war.Stamp out all these so called rebel groups at once. Those that make sense listen to their grievances. For those like FDLR genocidaires and terrorists, disarm them at once and bring peace to the region.Richard Niwenshuti, Rwanda

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Peaceful change of leadership is the solution to conflict in Africa