Former Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta arrived in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo where he is expected to hold talks with President Felix Tshisekedi on the escalating security situation in the country. The EAC facilitator is accompanied by East African Community Secretary General Peter Mathuki.
The EAC authorities are preparing for the third round of the Nairobi dialogue, which will bring together the Congolese government and Congolese armed groups which have recently renewed their violent campaigns. The talks are anticipated to take place in Nairobi on the 21st of November and hope to provide guidelines and strategies geared at ending the decades-long war that has affected the eastern provinces of North Kivu.
Kenyatta has called on the Congolese populace to unite, and the armed groups to lay down arms and support the peace that would be the only way to fend off external enemies with vested malicious intentions. He further said, “We are here because we are also appalled by what is happening in the country. The Congolese are killed innocently. War is imposed on them. We are here to exchange with the government and with the Congolese to see how we can bring peace to the country and bring solidarity between the different communities and ethnic groups”.
Since the entry of DRC into the EAC earlier this year, the East African Bloc has thrown its support behind its newest member who has been riddled with war, rebels, and the recent entry of the Islamic State. While public sentiment favors a military solution to end groups such as M23, military intervention ought to be backed up by economic, social, and political solutions that will ensure that the gains made are sustainable. The EAC troops began to arrive in Goma which will likely give immediate backup relief to the Congolese troops who have been battling the rebellion.
