Leaders of the East African Community member states are attending the 20th Extra-Ordinary Summit in Burundi’s commercial capital Bujumbura.
According to details, the summit is being chaired by President Evariste Ndayishimiye of Burundi doubling as current Chairman of the East African Community (EAC).
Taarifa has reliably learned that the leaders are assessing the security situation in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the way forward. It is the only item on the agenda.
This summit comes in a context that the security situation in East DRC is increasingly deteriorating in disregard of the recommendations of the Luanda mini-summit roadmap.
The M23 rebels had been given until January 15 to have withdrawn from occupied areas according to the schedule established by the Chiefs of General Staffs of the EAC and the Commander of the Regional Force of the EAC in the presence of the Chief of the Ad Hoc Verification Mechanism.
Kinshasa claims that the M23 has still not disengaged and blames the EAC regional force of for just looking on thus arousing disappointment and anger.
“Expected to be on the offensive against the armed groups active in this province, including the M23movement, the regional force has so far been discreet, raising questions about its usefulness in the DRC,” Kinshasa says.
Senator Francine Muyumba says, “The regional force of the EAC must leave Congolese territory, because it brings nothing and it will bring nothing at all. Among them, there are those who come from countries that sponsor the M23. We must also end the state of siege by reorganizing the commands.”
DRC national deputy Claudel Lubaya claims that the EAC force in Goma has demonstrated all its uselessness and that the accession of the DRC to the EAC was “hazardous and hasty” and that “the hidden agenda is no longer a mystery, was a risky choice whose consequences the country pays in cash”.
Tina Salama, spokesperson for President Felix Tshisekedi has noted that the Bujumbura meeting is addressing and “surely” decide on the issue of the Regional Force offensive.
