Reuters — Leaders of Eastern and Southern African regional blocs met for an unprecedented joint summit on Saturday to find a solution to a conflict in eastern Congo, where Rwandan-backed rebels’ rapid advance since January has fanned fears of a wider war.
The M23 rebels last week captured Goma, the largest city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo – the worst escalation of fighting in more than a decade that has left thousands dead. Despite announcing a unilateral ceasefire, they have continued to march south towards the city of Bukavu.
Presidents, including Rwanda’s Paul Kagame, lined up on stage at the start of talks in Dar es Salaam. Congo’s Felix Tshisekedi attended via video link.
“History will judge us harshly if we remain still and watch the situation worsen, day by day,” Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan said at the opening ceremony.
The first-ever summit of both Eastern and Southern African blocs points to the continent’s deep concern over the crisis and the standoff between Congo and neighboring Rwanda, which denies allegations it is fueling the conflict with its own troops and weapons.
The two groupings have, so far, been broadly divided over the conflict, with the eastern bloc closer to Rwanda’s call for dialogue and southern countries backing Congo and angry over the deaths of peacekeepers, experts and diplomats said.
The leaders are seeking a breakthrough after two peace processes in Luanda and Nairobi stalled as tensions escalated.
The blocs’ foreign ministers have recommended the summit consider calling for the cessation of hostilities, an unconditional ceasefire, and the reopening of Goma airport and other key routes for the delivery of urgently needed humanitarian aid.
Over the past month, M23’s lightning advances have expanded its control over North Kivu province’s lucrative coltan, gold and tin ore mines, uprooting thousands in what was already one of the world’s most dire humanitarian crises.
Aid groups have been helping to relieve overwhelmed hospitals as health workers race against time to bury the bodies of at least 2,000 people killed in the battle for Goma, amid concerns of disease spreading.
Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court say they are closely monitoring the bloodshed, where reports are emerging of rape, gang rape and sexual slavery, according to the U.N. human rights office.
Ahead of the summit, the United States warned of possible sanctions against Rwandan and Congolese officials, further raising the stakes for finding a solution to a conflict that is rooted in the long fallout from the 1994 Rwandan genocide and the struggle for control of Congo’s mineral resources.
Well-trained and professionally armed, M23 is the latest in a long line of ethnic Tutsi-led rebel movements to emerge in Congo’s volatile east. Congo’s government says it is a Rwandan proxy, which the rebel group denies.
Rwanda rejects accusations that thousands of its troops are fighting alongside M23. But it says it is defending itself against the threat from a Hutu-led militia, which it says is fighting alongside the Congolese military.
