The ball is now in DRC’s court

The ink on the latest agreement meant to bring back peace to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has dried up. What next?

Thursday, February 28, 2013

The ink on the latest agreement meant to bring back peace to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has dried up. What next?DRC has seen its fair share of peace agreements that don’t wait for the ink to dry before being flushed down the drain and it is the hope of many that the latest one doesn’t suffer the same fate.Many global and African leaders, in particular, have travelled thousands of miles, in a bid to find a lasting solution to DRC’s perennial woes, but the situation always goes back to square one.The DRC peace path has been travelled so many times that stakeholders know where all the obstacles lie, so what is the real problem? Why are DRC’s issues still lingering in world corridors? The answer can only be found in Kinshasa.It is time the DRC looked straight into the face of its problems and tackled them from the core. It is time it owned the whole process and not throw it to its neighbours and other political adventurers. The neighbours’ patience is bound to wear out if the DRC continues to drag its feet, and the consequences would not augur well with the region.DRC should grab the current goodwill the world is showing it by the horns and make the best out of it. In the case of the DRC, opportunity to find peace has not knocked once, but several times. Let the latest peace agreement not go to waste like previous ones.