Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has conveyed to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Nairobi’s willingness to fight rebel groups operating in the east of the country and pacify the area, following the dispatch of military personnel as part of an East African Community (EAC) mission.
Ruto, who is on an official visit to Kinshasa, stressed that «he is aware that there are efforts to maintain peace» and said he «supports them». «As a region, it seems that these efforts are not enough», he said.
«For this reason, we have come to generate efforts to support those that are underway to strengthen the path towards finding solutions,» he said after his meeting with his Congolese counterpart, Felix Tshisekedi, as reported by Radio Okapi.
Tshisekedi thanked Ruto for Kenya’s efforts to achieve peace in the country, in the framework of a meeting aimed also at strengthening bilateral ties at the level of defense, security, agriculture, energy, infrastructure, finance and trade.
In this regard, DRC Foreign Minister Christophe Lutundula said that «the two heads of state reaffirmed their determination to put an end to the insecurity in eastern Congolese territory as quickly as possible and to work with their EAC counterparts to create optimal conditions for multilateral cooperation for the benefit of the peoples of the region».
On the other hand, the peace talks between the DRC government and several rebel groups scheduled for Monday in Nairobi have been postponed, according to the British television channel BBC, without a new date for the meeting having been announced.
Kenya has deployed in recent days a group of military personnel in eastern DRC in view of the deteriorating security situation, while Uganda confirmed last week that it would do the same in view of the upsurge in fighting between the Armed Forces and the rebels of the March 23 Movement (M23).
The M23 has been accused since November 2021 of carrying out attacks against DRC Army positions in North Kivu, seven years after the parties reached a truce. UN experts have accused Uganda and Rwanda of supporting the rebels, although both countries have denied this.
The conflict has also led to a diplomatic crisis between the DRC and Rwanda, which Kinshasa accuses of supporting the M23, although Kigali has rejected these claims and has accused its neighbor of allegedly supporting the rebel movement of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).
