African Union Peace and Security Commissioner Bankole Adeoye stated that leaders of the continental organization are becoming more and more worried about “an open regional war” over the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
According to reports, M23 rebels over the weekend took control of Bukavu, another important town in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, with the help of Rwandan troops. In recent days, Burundian and Congolese troops had been progressively leaving the town, leaving a power vacuum.
Trapped troops
After an earlier rebel advance, South African and Malawian peace troops from the UN’s MONUSCO and the Southern African Development Community Mission in the DRC (SAMIDRC) are still stranded at their bases at Goma Airport and the neighboring Saké. After the 14 killed soldiers were repatriated last week, South Africa’s defense minister, Angie Motshekga, confirmed to The Africa Report that the country’s military has been sending plane reinforcements to Lubumbashi in the hopes of removing some of the soldiers, beginning with the wounded.
In an exclusive interview, Motshekga stated that returning the remains and injured was his top priority, and that is what they are working on. He also added that the forces could not withdraw without a SADC resolution. We didn’t wake up as South Africa and go to DRC. We went there as part of SAMIDRC. The process that took us there is the process that must take us out.”
According to the South African Sunday newspaper Rapport, the country’s defense chiefs have already quietly developed a plan to evacuate the troops by April, but this will require negotiating with the M23 rebels.
Félix Tshisekedi, the president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has also not been helpful because he won’t speak to the rebels. His Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame, attended both the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) meeting on Friday night and the joint SADC-East African Community summit in Tanzania just over a week ago, but he did not.
No balkanisation
Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the head of Uganda’s military, threatened to attack the town of Bunia because he asserted—without proof—that members of the Bahima ethnic group were being murdered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. When questioned about this, AU Commissioner Adeoye remained silent.
During a press conference held on the sidelines of the AU summit on Sunday, he stated, “We do not want a balkanization of eastern DRC.” “We reiterated the need for caution and the need for M23 and its supporters to disarm and withdraw from Goma airport,” Adeoye said in a report on the AU Peace and Security Council meeting on Friday night.
This was consistent with the decisions made at the East African Community and SADC joint summit. Adeoye also reaffirmed the necessity of Angola and Kenya’s peace processes working together. He went on to say that the 2013 Addis Ababa peace, security, and cooperation agreement was a very successful process.
Before the M23 resurfaced nearly two years ago, the peace process ensured that everyone and all adversarial forces in the DRC were dormant for nearly ten years. We are examining the execution of that specific peace deal, which is thorough and specific and addresses all parties at the institutional, regional, and national levels.
