DRC President of the Republic, Félix Tshisekedi Tshilombo is in Kenya’s capital Nairobi for a meeting with other EAC leaders to discuss the deteriorating security situation in his country.
President Uhuru Kenyatta is hosting this meeting.
According to DRC presidency handlers, Tshisekedi flew to Nairobi last evening on Sunday ahead of today’s 3rd conclave of Heads of State of the East African Community (EAC).
This meeting is a follow-up to the Nairobi peace process aimed at the surrender of the armed groups active in DRC. This third conclave will essentially rule on the inter-Congolese dialogue of the Nairobi process on the peace and security situation in eastern DRC, torn apart by an aggression imposed by the M23 rebel movement.
People in the eastern DRC “have long suffered and continue to pay an inordinately heavy price in loss of lives, property and elusive peace,” the Kenyan presidency said in a statement announcing Monday’s meeting in Nairobi.
Last week, President Kenyatta called for the deployment of a regional EAC force in eastern DRC to restore peace, but Kinshasa said it would not accept Rwanda’s participation in the operation. Regional commanders of the EAC met on Sunday to finalise preparations for the deployment of the joint force.
President Felix Tshisekedi however, accuses Rwanda of seeking “to occupy our land, rich in gold, coltan and cobalt, for their own exploitation and profit.”
“The security situation in the East of the country continues to deteriorate, and fundamentally because Rwanda seeks to occupy our land, rich in gold, coltan and cobalt, for their own exploitation and profit. It is an economic war for the battle for resources, led by terrorist gangs in Rwanda,” said President Felix Tshisekedi.
Rwanda in the strongest terms rejected and asked Kinshasa to solve its “internal” problems.
