US outlines strategy to pacify restive DRC

The Biden administration used this week’s US-Africa Leaders Summit here in Washington DC to signal its support for a regional-led solution to the longstanding conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

As the summit was raging on, the M23 rebels revealed last Thursday that an uneasy truce had fallen through following resumption of fighting in Bwiza, North Kivu. The rebels alleged that the Congolese army (FARDC) attacked their positions.

At a media briefing convened at the end of the Summit, United States Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told journalists that while “ the State Department has been deeply engaged … [in] try[ing] to help solve these challenges”, regional-led solutions were “more sustainable.”

He added that “partnerships are more vital than ever”, with the US pushing parties specific to the matter to deliver on the mandates as charged.

“… We are looking to Rwanda to use its influence with M23 to encourage that and to move that forward,” Secretary Blinken said, adding that the “militarised nongovernmental group[s]” that need “to stand down” include the Democratic Forces for Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), which Kigali alleges Kinshasa bankrolls.

The reported resumption of fighting in North Kivu follows accusations by Kinshasa that the M23 rebels reneged on one of the decisions of the Luanda mini summit that the latter withdraw—without conditions—from conquered positions.

Secretary Blinken described the “agreement in Luanda, where all sides made commitments to, in effect, pull back and de-escalate the situation” as “an important agreement” that “offers tremendous promise for ending the current conflict and hopefully leading to more durable stability in the eastern DRC.”

President Museveni told this newspaper that he is looking to the US for support to enhance “security cooperation” across the restive Great Lakes region.

“When we talk of security … within Uganda, we don’t need anybody to help us because we have the capacity. The only area where we need cooperation is beyond the borders where we don’t have authority. That is where we need cooperation and we have been able to make our own contribution there,” Mr Museveni said.

Foreign Affairs minister Gen Jeje Odongo, who accompanied President Museveni to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, told Sunday Monitor that several parties had been beckoned to help moot and implement remedies to de-escalate insurgency in the region.

“We have had discussions with the US officials, but we have also had discussions among the leaders in the region in as far as the security situation in the Great Lakes region in particular is concerned,” Gen Odongo said, adding: “In our conversations, particularly with the US officials, they have indicated that they would be taking a leaf from the leadership that Uganda provides in the region in this aspect.”

Gen Odongo further revealed that while Kampala “didn’t specifically look at the specifics of strategies” in discussions with the Biden administration, “we have a very clear understanding of the manner in which the Americans operate. They operate at bilateral level, rather than at regional level.”

Biden says

In an address delivered to more than 40 Heads of State from Africa on Wednesday, President Biden held that elimination of conflict and restoration of peace in war-torn areas was core to the growth of the African continent. He added that “Africa’s economic transition depends on good government, healthy populations, and reliable and affordable energy.”

Mr Biden, serving his first term of office, on Tuesday pledged $55 billion to support various economic initiatives on the African continent.

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