{{Foreign Affairs Minister Louise Mushikiwabo has brushed off U.S. charges that Rwanda was supporting M23 rebel movement in DRC saying that levelling accusations would not help pacify the region.}}
Mushikiwabo on Tuesday told media in Nairobi, Kenya, “Those whose policy is to keep pulling countries of the region into a conflict that is not of their making, we don’t think that is helpful, Scapegoating is not going to help DRC.”
When asked if that amounted to a denial, she told Reuters in Nairobi: “I think my comment is very clear. There are many complex issues in Congo and those have to be looked at with a view to try to reach a peaceful situation in DRC.”
Minister Mushikiwabo was speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of ministers from the Great Lakes region in the Kenyan capital, which included discussions about eastern Congo and regional efforts to broker peace between the rebel group and Kinshasa.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry last week led a U.N. Security Council debate on the Great Lakes and urged 11 African nations which signed a February deal brokered by the United Nations on ending fighting to respect Congo’s sovereignty.
Alongside that peace initiative, Uganda has been hosting talks between Kinshasa and the M23 group.
Kenyan Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed told Reuters a draft deal had been given to Kinshasa and the rebels, and that representatives from both sides were expected to meet soon in the Ugandan capital to discuss it. She did not give a date.
But another delegate at the Nairobi meeting said the two sides remained far apart and little progress was being made in the Kampala talks.
Congo’s U.N. peacekeeping mission announced on Tuesday it was setting up a security zone around Goma and the nearby town of Sake, which briefly fell into M23 hands last year, to prevent the population being caught up in renewed fighting.
The mission, known as MONUSCO, said its troops would disarm, by force if necessary, anyone other than members of the Congolese security forces found carrying weapons within the zone after a 48-hour grace period.
An accompanying map of the proposed zone indicated it would not cover any areas currently held by M23.
“There are many armed groups in this area. Now the brigade is out to enforce peace by means of the security zone, this is the first stage,” Charles Bambara, MONUSCO’s spokesman, said.
The operation will be the first for the nearly 3,000-strong Intervention Brigade, which has been charged with aggressively neutralising armed groups in Congo’s lawless eastern borderlands.
Additional reporting NV
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