The Chairperson of African Union Commission (AUC), Moussa Faki Mahamat, says he is very concerned about the continuous tension in Eastern DRC and reiterates his call for rapid de-escalation.
In a statement on Thursday, he called upon regional leaders, particularly those of DRC and Rwanda, to prioritize dialogue in the framework of the two African mechanisms led by President João Lourenço of Angola and Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, with the goal of agreeing, in a collaborative and fraternal spirit, on a reasonable pathway to settle political differences, whatever their nature.
“The integrity, security, sovereignty, and stability of all states in the region must necessarily be assured, and the lives of the civilian population completely protected,” said Faki.
He added: “The Chairperson of the Commission repeats forcefully that there will not be any military solution to problems and disagreements within the African family.”
He called upon all foreign powers to completely abstain from all interference in the internal affairs of all African countries, notably those of the Great Lakes Region.
The United States of America recently urged the M23 rebels to cease fire and called upon Rwanda to withdraw its troops from DRC.
However, Rwanda insisted that the ongoing war in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is becoming a national security threat in Kigali, confirming its fears of a possible regional conflict.
Rwanda’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said last week that the war means Kinshasa has specifically abandoned regional efforts at dialogue.
“DRC has launched massive combat operations in North Kivu, in contravention of the decisions of regional mechanisms, and clearly aims to expel M23 and Congolese Tutsi civilians into neighbouring countries,” Kigali said.
Officially, Kigali repeated its past allegation that Kinshasa was working in concert with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Rwandan ethnic militia which is directly linked to the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994, reported The EastAfrican.
The recent M23 advances, condemned by the US and Kinshasa in particular, are due to the DRC’s decision to expel the East African Community Regional Force in December 2023, “which oversaw ceasefire and withdrawal efforts,” Rwanda argued, referring to the defunct EAC force, which deployed between November 2022 and December 2023.