The Heads of State of Rwanda, DR Congo and Angola met in Luanda on Wednesday, July 6, in an effort to de-escalate tensions between Kigali and Kinshasa and to help find a pathway out of the current DR Congo crisis. The tripartite summit came up with a ‘roadmap on the pacification process in the eastern region of DR Congo’, addressing some of the issues at the heart of insecurity in the Congo. The roadmap includes immediate defeat of the “FDLR and its splinter groups (CNRD, FLN, RUD-Urunana, and FPPH-Abajyarugamba), which are at the origin of tensions between Rwanda and DRC and play a major role in the insecurity of the DRC in order to ensure that the threat to security ceases completely.” This, the leaders noted, would help “establish a climate of trust between the states of the region and create optimal conditions for dialogue and political consultation to resolve the current crisis in eastern DRC.” This is what Rwanda has been demanding for the last almost 30 years now – since the time members of the genocidal FDLR outfit, which is behind the slaughter of over one million people during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, crossed into the Congo. Unfortunately, successive Congolese governments have, from time to time, embraced these genocidaires, whose latest alliance with the Congolese forces, FARDC, have seen them shell the Rwandan territory, killing people and destroying property. For security at the border between the two countries to be assured, FDLR and its splinter groups need to be dealt with as the terrorist groups that they are, and not given the support to attack Rwanda and for DR Congo not to allow or facilitate shelling of Rwandan territory. The Luanda roadmap agreement to address the issue of FDLR and its splinter groups as well as the commitment to address the issue of hate speech against Kinyarwandophones is indeed a step in the right direction. Also important is the agreement to provide the right conditions for the return of refugees. It is also significant that the leaders reaffirmed their support for the Nairobi Process and asked the M23 to withdraw under the same framework. The M23 conflict is an internal DR Congo problem that needs to be addressed politically, a solution offered under the Nairobi Process in the form of the Inter-Congolese Dialogue. There is no doubt that the Luanda roadmap is an important contribution toward finding lasting peace for the Congo and the wider region. It’s vitally important that it’s implemented.
