DRC rebel leader heads to Uganda for talks

Sultani Makenga, the leader of the M23 armed group in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has travelled to the Ugandan capital Kampala for talks at the invitation of the head of the Ugandan military, a spokesman said.“General Makenga Sultani is travelling to Kampala to meet the other chief of staff,” Amani Kabasha, a rebel spokesman, told Al Jazeera on Monday.Congolese President Joseph Kabila met M23 for the first time at the weekend after a summit in Uganda where regional leaders gave the rebels two days to leave the eastern Congo city of Goma, which the rebels seized last week after UN-backed government troops melted away.Congo said it would not negotiate with the rebels until they pulled out of Goma, but the rebels said the government was in no position to set conditions on peace talks.Bishop Jean-Marie Runiga Lugerero, political leader of M23, said that a pullout from the eastern city of Goma could not be a precondition for talks with the government.Al Jazeera’s Nazanine Moshiri, reporting from Goma, said that the M23 spokesman told her that withdrawing from Goma was not an issue.“He said it was an issue for many regional powers, and also for the United Nations and the US who have called for the M23 to withdraw,” our correspondent said.“It does seem how there is an uneasy stalemate between these two sides. We have the Congolese army amassing in Minova, and we have the M23 saying they’re going to stay here in Goma,” she added.Ugandan effortsThe Ugandan military said it could not immediately confirm Makenga’s visit but that it was probable since Uganda’s chief of defence forces, Aronda Nyakayirima, was apparently coordinating M23’s withdrawal. “I am not aware of his arrival but I wouldn’t be surprised if he were here because meetings have been going on and since Aronda has been tasked to coordinate the withdrawal (from Goma) he would need to talk to him (Makenga),” military spokesman Felix Kulayigye said.A diplomat said the African Union was due to hold a Peace and Security Council meeting later on Monday to discuss the crisis. The rebels were integrated into the military under a March 23, 2009 peace deal from which their name is derived. The mutineers say the terms of that deal were never fully implemented.The rebels captured Goma on Tuesday, and took the key town of Sake 20 kilometres to the west the next day.The fighting has created a humanitarian crisis, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee