Regional leaders have for months been calling upon the Congolese government to come to the negotiation table with M23 to chart a way to sustainable peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo, especially in the restive eastern part of the vast country. The latest call for dialogue between the two warring parties came from Ugandan leader, President Yoweri Museveni, who told a news conference recently that M23 is a local rebel group which the government in Kinshasa should consider sitting with to resolve the outstanding security impasse. Needless to say, at the moment, this is the most powerful group that has over the past few months gained significantly against the government forces backed by some allied militia groups – including FDLR, a genocidal force from Rwanda – and supported by the UN forces. Most recently, the group, which has over the years spelt out a number of grievances that they need addressed by their government, agreed, in the spirit of the ongoing regional mechanism to pacify their country, to cede part of the territory they had seized as a show of commitment that they ready to negotiate. They actually made this concession to withdraw from some areas they controlled as a way of creating a buffer to be manned by the East African Force, even after they were excluded from the latest round of talks that were hosted in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. For the Nairobi talks, the Congolese government chose to invite other armed groups, including those that are actively fighting alongside the government forces in the fight against M23. The Congolese authorities should therefore come off the high horse and attentively listen to the grievances by their compatriots in M23 to put the country on a path to sustainable peace and security which it has not known for close to three decades. It is imperative to note that whereas external support, including that which comes from regional mechanisms has been rolled out to help restore peace in the country, it will ultimately come down to the Congolese themselves to internally sort out their contradictions.
