Last day, this Sunday, February 18, of the 37th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the African Union in Addis Ababa. The issue of the rotating presidency for this year was resolved with the appointment of Mauritanian Mohamed Ould Ghazouani. Participants are now trying to make progress on other complex issues, including violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
Published on: February 18, 2024 – 3:23 p.m
2 minutes
With our special correspondent in Addis Ababa, Sidy Yansane
Among the complex issues is the conflict in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where there is renewed violence on the border with Rwanda. This Sunday morning the presidents of Congo, South Africa and Burundi met.
Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi spoke with his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa and his Burundian counterpart Evariste Ndayishimiye on the sidelines of the summit at the Hyatt Hotel. The aim of this tripartite meeting was to take stock of the deployment of troops by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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Elements of these regional forces were sent late last year to the city of Goma, which is currently surrounded by M23 rebels. It was initially South African soldiers who supported the Congolese army in this conflict. Pretoria also announced this week that two of its soldiers had died in the battle for the town of Sake. Burundi also sent reinforcements to the region as part of a bilateral agreement with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
According to the Congolese presidency, the meeting of the three heads of state served to better coordinate operations on the ground at the beginning of the weekend Goma airport was attacked by drones that targeted Congolese army aircraft. The latter accuses neighboring Rwanda of being behind this attack, which caused little damage.
Last night, the United States strongly condemned the escalation of violence by the M23, which is said to be backed by Rwanda, and called on the armed group to withdraw from Goma and Sake. The Americans also directly called on Kigali to “immediately withdraw all Rwandan Defense Forces personnel from the Democratic Republic of Congo and withdraw their surface-to-air missile systems.” »
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