Kenya’s President William Ruto has taken initiative, on Wednesday, to end decades of bloodshed in the Democratic Republic of Congo by deploying troops there and joining an East African regional force for the purpose.
In April, the seven members of the East African Community (EAC), to which Congo was admitted this year, decided to establish a joint force to combat paramilitary groups in the eastern part of the Congo. The Burundian contingent will be joined by the Kenyan soldiers.
Even after billions of dollars spent on one of the United Nation’s largest peacekeeping forces, armed groups are working in Congo undeterred. Over 120 armed groups continue to operate across a large area of east Congo, including the M23 rebels, which is supported by Rwanda or so the Congo claims. However, the former denies the claims.
Uganda, another country in East Africa, has also sent troops to Congo, although, as a separate deployment to hunt down an Islamic State-linked armed militants, one of the warring groups in eastern Congo.
At a ceremony of sending troops for Congo, in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, Ruto said,”We all have a stake in a stable Democratic Republic of Congo and its security.”
He also said the United Nations and African Union had given “tacit” backing to the Kenyan deployment.
A UN source told UK news agency Reuters that there has been some non clarity around Kenya’s deployment because it wanted international funding, which should have an official mandate from the U.N. Security Council or the African Union.
Also present at the event, Kenyan Defence Minister Aden Duale said, “We have been working very hard to mobilize the international community to support the east African force,”
Several thousand people staged a protest against the regional army on Wednesday morning in the city of Bukavu, eastern Congo, claiming that some of their “enemies” are EAC member nations.
UN mission in Congo
The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is putting its weapons down. It has pulled off its troops from the eastern military base of Rumangabo, giving up ground in the battle against the M23 rebel group.
In a Twitter post on Tuesday, MONUSCO, the UN mission said, “We have made a strategic and tactical withdrawal from Rumangabo, in consultation with our partners, to better prepare the next steps together.”
The M23, which started a new attack in October and broke months of relative calm by seizing the town of Kiwanja on Saturday, has been fighting against Congolese forces with the assistance of UN troops.
