EAC regional force set to hold a meeting with M23 rebel group

NAIROBI, Kenya - The East African regional force will this week meet the M23 rebel group fighting government forces in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo this coming Saturday.

According to Lawrence Kanyuka, the M23 political spokesperson said that the meeting, due on Saturday, December 31, will be “in line with its continued commitment to the implementation of the resolutions of Luanda’s Mini Summit.”

This comes after the M23 rebel group agreed to withdraw from one of the occupied positions.

The M23 rebels recently withdrew from Kibumba last week, a move it said was made “in the name of peace.” The EAC regional force now controls Kibumba.

However, Kanyuka has accused the government coalition, which includes rebel armed groups like terrorist FDLR, had continued to shell M23-controlled areas, in violation of an existing ceasefire.

He further alleges the coalition “used heavy artillery and fighter jets SUKHOI to deliberately launch attacks aiming at displaced populations.”
The M23 withdrawal from Kibumba was with respect to the resolutions of the summit of regional leaders in Luanda last month.

It is expected that the rebels – who control parts of North Kivu, including Bunagana, a strategic town at the Ugandan border – will continue to pull out of their current positions, and back to prior positions.

The Luanda meeting had also set November 30 as the deadline for the FDLR, a group founded by genocidaires responsible for the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi to repatriate unconditionally. But one month later, there are no signs of FDLR repatriating.

GAROWE ONLINE