President Paul Kagame on Tuesday, June 24, received former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo at Urugwiro Village for a wide-ranging discussion. According to the President's Office, they discussed the situation in the region, along with various key issues of continental and global significance.
"The two leaders shared insights on pathways toward stability, cooperation, and progress," Urugwiro Village posted on X.
In February, and Obasanjo and two other former leaders, Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya and Ethiopia's former Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, were appointed as facilitators of the new peace process for eastern DR Congo, which is faces security crisis as a result of the ongoing conflict between the Congolese army coalition and AFC/M23 rebels. A month later, a joint summit of heads of state from the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) named more facilitators in the push to resolve the crisis in eastern DR Congo.
While Ethiopia's former Prime Minister was dropped, the leaders named three more facilitators, also former Heads of State - Kgalema Motlanthe of South Africa, Catherine Samba Panza from the Central African Republic and Sahle-Work Zwelde the former President of Ethiopia - who were tasked to fast-track the process to pacify DR Congo.
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At the heart of the crisis is the presence of more than 200 armed groups operating in eastern DR Congo, including FDLR, a Kinshasa-backed militia formed by remnants of the perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
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Efforts to resolve the decades-long conflict gained momentum earlier this year when the AFC/M23 rebel group seized control of two major cities in eastern DR Congo, after defeating a Congolese government coalition that comprised the genocidal FDLR militia.
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The group, designated a terrorist organization by both the U.N. and the U.S., has been accused of launching attacks on Rwanda and spreading genocidal ideology in eastern DR Congo.
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Last month, Corneille Nangaa, the leader of Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC/M23) movement, outlined four main reasons - including bad governance - why his group is fighting to topple the Congolese government. He attributed the crisis in eastern DR Congo to the collapse of state institutions in what he described as a failed state.
AFC/M23 is fighting for governance that supports basic human rights, secures all Congolese citizens, and addresses the root causes of conflict. The rebellion has vowed to uproot tribalism, nepotism, corruption, and the genocide ideology spread by FDLR, among other vices, widespread in DR Congo.
