A crisis summit on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) called for an immediate ceasefire and the creation of humanitarian corridors amid fresh fighting on the ground and a warning by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that the conflict could spread.
But rebels at the center of the conflict who did not attend rubbished Friday’s one-day summit held in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, saying the Congolese people’s problems would only be settled by direct talks with the Kinshasa government.
Diplomacy was “without hope after this summit,” rebel spokesman Bertrand Bisimwa said, adding that the participants were just going “round and round.”
PHOTO: EPA
“There should be an immediate ceasefire by all the armed groups and militias in Nord-Kivu,” said the emergency meeting’s final declaration.
It urged implementing the disarmament of rebel groups in the region and increasing the UN peacekeeping force’s mandate.
The main protagonists, feuding Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Congolese President Joseph Kabila, turned up but held no direct talks.
The UN said late on Friday that troops loyal to Laurent Nkunda’s rebels and pro-government Mai-Mai militia fighters had been fingered over the murder of civilians in the DRC this week.
Following an inspection team’s visit, the UN mission in DRC, MONUC, said that “serious violations of human rights” had been confirmed in Kiwanja, 80km north of the eastern city of Goma.
“Witnesses have described incidents during which civilians lost their lives” on Tuesday, as pro-government Mai-Mai militia fighters attempted to seize the town from renegade general Nkunda’s rebel National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) forces.
The UN statement said it had also received “credible reports” of civilian deaths in reprisal attacks “just after” the Mai-Mai left Kiwanja.
The investigators “visited 11 communal grave sites, containing at least 26 bodies, fighters and civilians,” it said, adding that reports of further loss of life were still being checked out.
Immediately prior to the statement’s release, Nkunda had issued a “categorical denial” that his men were behind civilian killings in Kiwanja this week.
Renewed clashes broke out between Congolese troops and Nkunda’s CNDP around 15km from the regional capital Goma, scattering thousands of displaced people from a nearby camp.
MONUC, which deployed helicopters to try to contain the flare-up, said the Congolese army had given assurances it had not launched a counter-offensive as initially feared, but had merely responded to rebel fire.
By then, it was too late for the thousands who had fled a displaced people’s camp at Kibati, near the front line. They headed towards Goma and the UN refugee agency said they did not return once the firing had subsided.
In Nairobi, Ban used the summit to urge African leaders to stop the rot in the eastern DRC or face a regional crisis.
“The recent military offensives by the CNDP have radically compounded the situation, led to severe humanitarian consequences and thrust the eastern DRC once more into a phase of heightened crisis. This crisis could engulf the broader sub-region,” Ban said. “As leaders of Africa, you have a historic responsibility, it is a critical moment for the Great Lakes region and for Africa as a whole. We must put the cycle of violence behind us.”
The UN and aid groups said that the latest round of fighting had displaced 253,000 civilians since September and killed at least 100.
The most concrete development was the creation of a mechanism tasked with facilitating the implementation of existing peace agreements.
The new body will be based in Nairobi and report to the UN and African Union.
At a meeting in Nairobi a year ago almost to the day, DRC and Rwanda committed to a plan aimed at stabilizing the Kivus but both sides have failed to deliver.
Under that agreement, Kinshasa was supposed to disarm Rwandan Hutu rebels wanted over the 1994 genocide and operating in eastern Congo while Kigali was to stop supporting armed groups, including Nkunda’s forces.
Kabila’s spokesman accused UN peacekeepers of doing nothing to stop killings by rebels.
“People are being slaughtered and MONUC did nothing,” Kudura Kasongo said.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS