By Our Reporter
Qatari mediators hosted a second round of talks on Friday between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda, and separately met representatives of the Rwandan-backed rebellion waging an insurgency in eastern DRC, four sources revealed.
DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame met last week in Doha for their first talks since M23 rebels stepped up an offensive in January.
The content of the discussions was not clear. Qatar’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ceasefire Signed Between Sadc & M23 rebels
Kigali has denied helping M23, saying its forces are acting in self-defence against the DRC’s army and ethnic Hutu militiamen linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide that killed about one million people, mostly ethnic Tutsis.
The conflict has raised fears of a wider regional war, with the armies of the DRC, Rwanda and Burundi having participated in the fighting.
Farther north, Uganda also has thousands of troops in eastern DRC. They are helping Kinshasa fight another militia but are viewed with suspicion by many Congolese given Uganda’s intervention in past wars against the DRC’s government and accusations by UN experts last year that Kampala was providing support to M23.
Uganda denied the UN experts’ allegations.
In a sign of possible diplomatic strain, a DRC general on Friday expressed “indignation” about social media comments by the head of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) last weekend that threatened to seize a city in northern DRC.
“UPDF will not oppose M23’s seizure of Kisangani, but they better move quickly otherwise we will do it ourselves,” Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who is President Yoweri Museveni’s son and regularly makes inflammatory social media posts, had written.
“If it is true that this is the Ugandan military chief’s account. We have expressed our indignation,” he said. “We told them we are not at all happy.”
UPDF spokesperson Chris Magezi said Ugandan forces had no ill-will towards the DRC and the two countries were working together closely.
“The X platform is not an official channel, so people should not take it seriously,” he said.
In an interview, the DRC’s foreign minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner said the joint DRC-Ugandan operations against the Allied Democratic Forces, an Islamic State affiliate, were going well.
“We are happy that we have good communication channels with the UPDF that enable us also to react to dynamics on the ground,” she said.
Have An Advert Or Article You Want Us To Publish? Email: swiftnewsug@gmail.com
