Narrow screen resolution Wide screen resolution

News in different languages

News - Noticias- Notizie - Notícias
Congo: Obasanjo Pushes for Ceasefire Print E-mail
Written by AllAfrica.com   
Wednesday, 19 November 2008
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday held a peace meeting with Democratic Republic of Congo's rebel leader, Laurent Nkunda, seeking an end to armed hostilities between the government troops and rebels.

In what has been described as a major breakthrough, the Congolese rebel leader pledged to throw his weight behind the United Nations (UN) peace process on conditions that the government troops cease hostilities with the rebel group.

Earlier Saturday, Obasanjo held talks with Congolese President Joseph Kabila, demanding that the fighting in North Kivu be prevented from escalating into a repeat of a wider 1998-2003 Congo war that sucked in six neighbouring states.

Obasanjo, who met with Nkunda at his home village in the foothills of the Virunga Mountains close to the Rwanda and Uganda borders, said the talks went well. The former president is a special UN envoy to DR Congo.

After talks with Obasanjo at Jomba in DR Congo, North Kivu province, Nkunda said he had agreed to three requests from him to respect a ceasefire, open a humanitarian corridor and support the UN peace initiative.

According to Obasanjo, Nkunda wants to maintain a ceasefire, but it is like dancing the tango. You can not do it alone. He agrees to supports a United Nations peace process for Eastern Congo including respecting a ceasefire and creating a humanitarian corridor to aid refugees

"We agree," Nkunda said in French, but he had asked Obasanjo to tell President Joseph Kabila's government to also respect a suspension of military hostilities.

Nkunda said: "We support his mission. He has got support from the international community. We are behind him and we are going to do our part so we can get on with this peace.

Weeks of combat between Nkunda's Tutsi rebels and government troops and their militia allies have displaced around a quarter of a million civilians, creating what aid agencies call a "catastrophic" humanitarian situation in east Congo.

Earlier, UN peacekeepers reported heavy artillery, rocket and small arms fire near the village of Ndeko, about 110 km north of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province. Nkunda played down the latest clash, saying it was "not a problem" and he had contacted the government to try to end it.

UN military spokesman, Lt-Col Jean-Paul Dietrich, said: "It is difficult to say who started it but we can confirm it was between the CNDP and the army. We treated six army soldiers who were wounded and need to be evacuated".

The roots of the North Kivu conflict stem from Rwanda's 1994 genocide, when extremist Hutu militias killed about 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus before fleeing into Congo.
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 18 November 2008 )