Uhuru Kenyatta, former president of Kenya, Olusegun Obasanjo, former head of state of Nigeria, and Hailemariam Desalegn, former prime minister of Ethiopia, have been appointed “facilitators of the peace process (...) in eastern DR Congo,” the two blocs wrote in a joint press release issued on Monday evening.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the East African Community (EAC) held a summit in early February calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in eastern DR Congo, where conflict has intensified in recent weeks.
In an offensive, the M23 armed group and its Rwandan allies took control of Goma and Bukavu, the capitals of North Kivu and South Kivu provinces, and fighting intensified.
The two blocs agreed at their summit in early February to merge the Luanda and Nairobi peace processes, which have been trying to find a peaceful solution to the conflict in recent years.
According to the text, the objectives of the three facilitators include “an immediate and unconditional ceasefire”, access to humanitarian aid and security of the airport in Goma, the main city in eastern DR Congo.
The statement also said that SADC and EAC will meet on Friday to “work out the details of the ceasefire”.
It is worth noting that João Lourenço, who assumed the rotating presidency of the African Union (AU) in early February, in an interview with Jeune Afrique, had expressed his willingness to continue engaging in mediation of the conflict but, at the time, added that there must be other countries and heads of state who are available to do so.
The fighting in eastern DR Congo has already caused thousands of deaths, according to the UN, and raises fears of a repeat of the so-called Second Congo War (1998-2003), which lasted until 2003, involving many African countries and causing millions of deaths due to violence, disease and hunger.
Kinshasa accuses Kigali of wanting to control the exploration and trade of minerals - of which the subsoil of eastern DRCongo is rich - used mainly in batteries and electronic equipment.
Rwanda denies this accusation and claims that its security is threatened by certain armed groups present in the region, notably the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), created by former Hutu leaders of the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda.
