Tripartite Plus: Army chiefs meeting today

REGIONAL - Military chiefs from Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are from today meeting for two days in Kigali. The meeting is one of the components of the US-facilitated Joint Tripartite Plus Commission (JTPC) which brings together the four countries.Military Spokesman Maj. Jill Rutaremara said all participating countries had confirmed participation.He said the meeting was part of the ongoing efforts to reach a consensus on the best way to curb insecurities in the region posed by negative forces fighting each of the four governments.“They will be discussing the adopted scenarios especially Congo’s commitment to solve the problem of negative forces operating on its soil,” Rutaremara said.The meeting is the second of the kind after the one held in Burundi, Bujumbura in April. It also comes ahead of next month’s JTPC meeting in Kampala, Uganda.During the Bujumbura meeting, the DRC military had provisionally agreed to commit its defence forces with the support of the Tripartite Plus intelligence services to intensify operations against the negative forces operating on its territory within the following two months.However, the Congolese military earlier this month announced that they were not going to be involved in the fight against the insurgents, particularly Rwanda’s ex-FAR/Interahamwe, saying it was the work of the UN mission in Congo to stamp the negative forces out.Today’s meeting comes after the UN expressed concern about the growing number of Congolese refugees fleeing violence in eastern DRC.Ends

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Tripartite Plus: Army chiefs meeting today