Africa can address the Congo crisis

A High-Level summit of the Heads of State from the eleven countries constituting the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) is taking place in the Ugandan capital Kampala. The ultimate goal is to reach a viable solution to the renewed crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).The summit follows one held early last month in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which decided that “a neutral force” be deployed along the DRC-Rwanda border. The force’s mandate would include getting rid of negative forces from in eastern Congo and help calm tensions that have risen between Kigali and Kinshasa over allegations of rebel backing.The proposed force would target DRC’s M23 rebels and the FDLR militia, which crossed into the Congo after perpetrating the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, killing more than a million people; as well as other rebel groups holed up in the volatile region.The latest crisis is said to have driven nearly half a million of Congolese out of their homes, with thousands crossing into Rwanda and Uganda, as government forces, bolstered by the UN Stabilisation Mission in the Congo (Monusco), fight the rebels, who accuse Kinshasa of breaching a 2009 peace deal.While this rebellion should have been treated as just another internal conflict which a country can ably handle, either through political or military means, it is unfortunate that what began as a mutiny was unnecessarily overblown to a regional dimension, with rhetoric and accusations designed to suck in other countries.In reality, this conflict remains a DRC affair. However, from experience Congo wars have often spilled over the borders, largely because of the security concerns they ultimately pose to neighbouring countries.It is, therefore, critical that ICGLR and other actors, including the African Union, help Kinshasa contain the latest crisis without attempting to shift the blame as we have witnessed in the recent weeks.The broader international community should support this regional initiative if a durable solution is to found.

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Africa can address the Congo crisis