Africa-Press – Uganda. At least 10,000 Congolese fled to Uganda in the past week following continued fighting in the North Kivu province.
The refugees, mostly women and children, flocked into Uganda through the Bunagana border and the Kibaya border area amid fighting between M23 rebels and the Democratic Republic of Congo forces.
Fighting between M23 rebels and Congo forces started in March when the rebels overran the border town of Bunagana and surrounding areas, which they have been occupying for six months.
Kisoro District officials have on many occasions said the refugees demand basic necessities like food and water, straining the already meager resources.
The Eastern DRC has more than 150 rebel militias, and many have been attributed to the region’s vast mineral resources that everyone wants to have a pie of. This, in itself, is the heart of the matter that won’t let the country rest easy.
As it looks, the war in the eastern DR Congo is just thickening by the day, and the risk of a full-blown humanitarian crisis is so much on the cards.
The diplomatic tiff between Kinshasa and Kigali does not help matters.
At the weekend, DR Congo gave Rwanda’s envoy Vincent Karega 48 hours to leave the country over allegations that Rwanda supports the M23 rebels.
In what looks like a way forward, Rwandan President Paul Kagame yesterday tweeted. “Few hours ago I had a good discussion with the UNSG on the conflict in E.DRC. The ways and means to de-escalate…& address the issues to a peaceful end are with us building on the Nairobi, Luanda & other international efforts! We just have to commit ourselves to applying them!!!”
It is important that resolutions from the meetings in Nairobi, Kenya, and Luanda, Angola, over the Congo crisis early this year are followed to the letter.
This publication, through the investigative platform Panorama, yesterday reported that the East African Community (EAC) regional force had begun deploying boots on the ground in the neighbouring state where millions have suffered inhumane treatment.
We appreciate these steps, but we suggest that the process is fast tracked, and hopefully we get a lasting solution to the Congo question.
We also suggest that the powers that be find ways of integrating the EAC force into other fighting forces, including the United Nations Organisation mission into the DRC (MONUSCO) and the Force Intervention Brigade (FIB) led by SADC, among others.
The EAC heads of state have been preaching regional integration over the past months. But with the trouble DRC is going through, and with regional leaders being fingered in the storm, integration remains a mirage, yet this should help with regional trade and unity. At the end of the day, human life is at stake in this. Let’s save the Congo.
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