{"id":56164,"date":"2022-05-31T17:55:07","date_gmt":"2022-05-31T14:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kfm.co.ug\/?p=56164"},"modified":"2022-05-31T17:55:07","modified_gmt":"2022-05-31T14:55:07","slug":"au-asks-angolan-president-to-mediate-in-congo-rwanda-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/au-asks-angolan-president-to-mediate-in-congo-rwanda-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"AU asks Angolan president to mediate in Congo-Rwanda crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The EAST AFRICAN<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Senegal President Macky Sall, who chairs the Africa Union, on Sunday called for dialogue between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda as tensions escalate between the two countries over a resurgence of the M23 rebel group.<\/p>\n<div class=\"paragraph-wrapper\">\n<p>He also urged Angolan President Jo\u00e3o Louren\u00e7o, the chairperson of the International Conference for the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), to head peace talks between DRC and Rwanda.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"paragraph-wrapper\">\n<p>DR Congo on Saturday summoned Rwanda\u2019s ambassador and\u00a0suspended RwandAir flights to Congo\u00a0in response to what it says is Kigali\u2019s support for M23 rebels carrying out a military offensive in its eastern borderlands.<\/p>\n<div class=\"paragraph-wrapper\">\n<p>Kinshasa has accused Rwanda of the latest offensive by the rebels, citing the rebels\u2019 heavy firepower as evidence of outside support.\u00a0Rwanda has denied this, calling the fighting an intra-Congolese conflict.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"paragraph-wrapper\">\n<p>\u201cI am seriously concerned by the rising tension between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo,\u201d Sall said on Twitter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"paragraph-wrapper\">\n<p>\u201cI call for calm and dialogue between the two countries, and for the peaceful resolution of the crisis with the support of regional mechanisms and the African Union,\u201d said Sall, who holds the rotating chairmanship of the African Union.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"paragraph-wrapper\">\n<p><strong>Soldiers detained<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"paragraph-wrapper\">\n<p>Rwanda\u2019s army also requested the release of two Rwandan soldiers it said were \u201ckidnapped\u201d along its border with Congo.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"paragraph-wrapper\">\n<p>General Sylvain Ekenge, spokesman for the military governor of North Kivu province, said the two Rwandan soldiers were \u201carrested in North Kivu by civilians, more than 20 kilometres from the Rwandan border.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"paragraph-wrapper\">\n<p>However, the Rwandan army denied this and insisted that the soldiers were kidnapped.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"paragraph-wrapper\">\n<p>\u201cFARDC with FDLR attacked RDF along our border, and two Rwanda Defense Force soldiers were kidnapped while on patrol,\u201d said a Rwandan army statement released on Saturday.<\/p>\n<div class=\"paragraph-wrapper\">\n<p><strong>Peace talks<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"paragraph-wrapper\">\n<p>During a briefing on the North Kivu situation on Monday, DR Congo government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said, \u201cWe will make peace with those who want peace.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"paragraph-wrapper\">\n<p>\u201cWhatever the nature of the crisis today, we cannot close the doors to the possibility of talks. Even if there is war today, we will end up in dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"paragraph-wrapper\">\n<p>The Democratic Republic of Congo said it now considers the M23 as terrorists and excluded the rebel group from the Nairobi talks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"paragraph-wrapper\">\n<p><strong>READ:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.monitor.co.ug\/uganda\/news\/national\/au-chief-gravely-concerned-by-rwanda-dr-congo-tension-3831276\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AU chief &#8216;gravely concerned&#8217; by Rwanda\/DR Congo tension<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"paragraph-wrapper\">\n<p>Even as Rwanda denied Kinshasa\u2019s accusation of backing the M23 rebels, it has also accused the DRC of being an \u201cally\u201d of the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda), an armed group hostile to Kigali and which fled Rwanda after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"paragraph-wrapper\">\n<p>In a statement issued on May 28, the Rwanda Defense Forces said that the \u201cauthorities of the Democratic Republic of Congo work closely with these [FDLR] genocidal armed groups.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"paragraph-wrapper\">\n<p>Vincent Biruta, Rwandan Minister of Foreign Affairs, said \u201cthe Congolese army has been collaborating with the FDLR for almost 30 years.\u201d However, DRC government spokesman Muyaya rejected this claim.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"paragraph-wrapper\">\n<p>As of Monday, fighting in North Kivu province between government forces and the M23 had stalled, but tension was still high in the area.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"paragraph-wrapper\">\n<p>Kinshasa has, however, reinforced the military in anticipation of renewed fighting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The EAST AFRICAN Senegal President Macky Sall, who chairs the Africa Union, on Sunday called for dialogue between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda as tensions escalate between the two countries over a resurgence of the M23 rebel group. He also urged Angolan President Jo\u00e3o Louren\u00e7o, the chairperson of the International Conference for the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), to head peace talks between DRC and Rwanda. DR Congo on Saturday summoned Rwanda\u2019s ambassador and\u00a0suspended RwandAir flights to Congo\u00a0in response to what it says is Kigali\u2019s support for M23 rebels carrying out a military offensive in its eastern borderlands. Kinshasa has accused Rwanda of the latest offensive by the rebels, citing the rebels\u2019 heavy firepower as evidence of outside support.\u00a0Rwanda [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":56165,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":""},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":""},"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,132],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56164"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}