Uganda must explain role in Congo - Kabila

PDRC President Joseph Kabila

What you need to know:

DRC President Joseph Kabila says it’s Rwanda, the region’s ‘bad boy’ and Uganda stirring up things through M23 rebels.

DRC president Joseph Kabila has warned that he is keeping the military option on the table as a possible solution to the simmering insurrection in the eastern part of the country.

Mr Kabila, speaking to selected Ugandan journalists in Kinshasa early this week for the first time since he became President in 2001, expressed support for the proposed 4,000 strong neutral force. “There is a peaceful, diplomatic and political solution and a military option will still be on the table,” he said.

The president said that his country initially proposed a neutral force to give assurances to authorities in Rwanda and DR Congo that no dissident elements from either country would be allowed to destabilise the other.

In a wide-ranging interview at his Palais De Le Nation on Monday, Mr Kabila raised concern about what he called Uganda’s inadequate response to allegations of its involvement in supporting the M23 rebel group. He described Rwanda as the region’s “bad boy”.