5 maart 2023

Dichtbij Bujumbura ligt Kivu in het oosten van DR Congo. Het Kivu-gebied, Noord en Zuid, is al jaren onrustig en onveilig. In 2021 laaiden gevechten verder op. Er zijn naast militairen uit andere Afrikaanse landen nu ook militairen uit Burundi aangekomen om te participeren in de internationale missie van de East African Community, die als doel heeft om rebellenacties te stoppen. Onrust in een deel van het Grote Merengebied heeft invloed op de andere landen in deze regio.

Hieronder eerst twee berichten uit The Citizen. Daarachter een bericht uit Africanews. Deze drie berichten werden vandaag gepubliceerd.

The Citizen
Macron lauds DR Congo ceasefire as EU sets up air bridge

Kinshasa.
Brussels said Saturday it was setting up a “humanitarian air bridge” to deliver aid to conflict-hit eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, as the visiting French president said all sides had given support to a ceasefire next week.
The air bridge will link with Goma, the capital of DR Congo’s eastern North Kivu province, where fighting with the rebel group M23 has displaced more than 600,000 people.
The operation will “deliver humanitarian support in the form of medical and nutritional supplies along with a range of other emergency items”, a European Commission statement said.
Meanwhile French President Emmanuel Macron, visiting the country on the last leg of his African tour aimed at renewing frayed ties, said that all sides would support a ceasefire in the fighting.
During talks with Angolan President Joao Lourenco and DRC President Felix Tshisekedi, as well as Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Macron said all had “given clear support” to a ceasefire next Tuesday, as envisaged in the timeline mediated by Angola.
Despite Congolese pressure to do so, Macron avoided overt public criticism of alleged Rwandan support for M23, which Tshisekedi called “unjust and barbarous aggression.”
DR Congo “must not comprise the spoils of war. Open looting (of the country) must cease. There must be no pillaging, no balkanisation, no war,” Macron insisted at a joint press conference with Tshisekedi.
The EU said it was also releasing some 47 million euros to be channelled through humanitarian partners for immediate needs such as nutrition, healthcare, shelter and water.
“The EU stands ready to mobilise all the necessary means to support humanitarian workers, including logistics and air, to meet the needs of the population in Democratic Republic of Congo,” said the EU’s commissioner for crisis management Janez Lenarcic.
The DRC government has accused Rwanda of backing the militia group M23, which re-emerged from dormancy in late 2021, subsequently occupying swathes of territory in North Kivu.
Independent UN experts, the United States and other western countries — including France — agree with Kinshasa’s assessment, but Rwanda denies the charge.
Addressing the issue, Macron, rather than announce sanctions, called on all parties to “take responsibility” for the situation in the region, “Rwanda included.”
He went on: “What we expect of Rwanda and others is to engage and respect appointments which they give themselves under the supervision of mediators — and , if they do not respect, then, yes, there can be sanctions. I say this very clearly.”
‘Strategic partner’
Anti-French sentiment runs high in some former African colonies as the continent becomes a renewed diplomatic battleground, with Russian and Chinese influence growing.
On Thursday Macron said the era of French interference in Africa had ended and there was no desire to return to the past.
The French President met on Friday with President Denis Sassou-Nguesso of the neighbouring Republic of Congo, after visiting Angola and Gabon.
In the Angolan capital Luanda, Macron held talks with his counterpart Joao Lourenco, calling the oil-rich country a “strategic partner in the region”.
Macron, who chaired an economic forum attended by more than 50 French companies, said the “heart of this visit is the strengthening of agricultural partnerships” with Angola.
France has for decades been involved in the petroleum industry in the Portuguese-speaking southern African country, which is one of the continent’s top crude producers.
Before leaving Luanda, the French president thanked Lourenco for his work to restore stability to the region, highlighting his diplomatic efforts in conflict-torn eastern DRC.
He added that there are “legitimate hopes” for a de-escalation in the turbulent region.
Macron also met with Central African Republic President Faustin-Archange Touadera in Gabon on Thursday, after relations had deteriorated as Russian influence increased in Bangui and French troops left the troubled country last year.

The Citizen
Burundi troops arrive in DR Congo

Goma.
Thirty Burundian soldiers landed at Goma airport in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday to join an international force helping Kinshasa tackle the rise of militias in the region.
The troops will be deployed as part of the regional force set up by the East African Community (EAC) countries to try to stem the advance of the M23 rebellion and disband the hundred or so armed groups that plague eastern DR Congo.
The seven-nation EAC deployed troops late last year in the region.
The fighting in North Kivu province has displaced huge numbers of people and exacerbated tensions, with the DRC government accusing Rwanda of backing the M23 — claims denied by Kigali but supported by the US and several Western nations.
The militia re-emerged from dormancy in late 2021, subsequently occupying swathes of territory in North Kivu, including much of the region north of its capital Goma.
The EAC, which has held several meetings to defuse the crisis and called for the withdrawal of the M23 from occupied areas, created a regional force aimed at stabilising the eastern DRC.
An EAC press statement on Friday confirmed Burundian troops would be deployed, but did not elaborate on the number of soldiers travelling to the DRC.
According to a new timetable adopted by East African leaders last month, “all armed groups”, including the M23, must withdraw by March 30.
At the airport on Sunday, General Emmanuel Kaputa Kasenga, deputy commander of the East African contingent, met the Burundian arrivals and spoke of their mission.
He told the soldiers that they would “participate in the unconditional withdrawal of the M23 rebellion”.
The Burundian troops will join forces with a Kenyan army contingent of about 1,000 men deployed in and around Goma since November.
On Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron, visiting DR Congo on the last leg of an African tour, said all sides would support a ceasefire in the fighting.
During talks with Angolan President Joao Lourenco and DRC President Felix Tshisekedi, as well as Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Macron said all had “given clear support” to a ceasefire next Tuesday, as envisaged in the timeline mediated by Angola.

Africanews
Tshisekedi calls upon France to sanction Rwanda over M23 violence

A clash between the visiting French president Emmanuel Macron and his DR Congo counterpart Felix Tshisekedi played out on Saturday when the two heads of state were having a joint press conference in Kinshasa.
The former French Foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in 2019 had termed the election of President Tshisekedi as controversial and as an African-style compromised poll.
Tshisekedi nevertheless called for an equal partnership between the two states as he also called upon France to sanction its neighbouring Rwanda over the ongoing violent crisis on its eastern region of Goma.
“I remain doubtful of the good faith of those who attacked us. There was no reason, I recall, that justified this aggression. Except for economic reasons specific to Rwanda, the instigator of this aggression. Now, the question is to know: “Can Rwanda do without this systematic plundering of the DRC, which dates back some twenty years now? And if this is not the case, it is there that I will verify the words and commitments of President Macron, in relation to the sanctions to be taken against Rwanda,” said Félix Tshisekedi, Congolese President.
Macron on the other hand called upon the DR Congo’s government to take responsibility over the violence that has cascaded through the region for years.
“Since 1994, and it is not France’s fault, I’m sorry to say it in such blunt terms, you have not been able to restore the sovereignty, neither military, nor security, nor administrative, of your country. This is also a reality. We must not look for culprits outside this affair,” said Emmanuel Macron, French President.
The DRC government has accused Rwanda of backing the militia group M23, which re-emerged from dormancy in late 2021, subsequently occupying swathes of territory in North Kivu.
Independent UN experts, the United States and other western countries — including France — agree with Kinshasa’s assessment, but Rwanda denies the charge.