Kenya’s President William Ruto has defended the work done by East African Community (EAC) troops deployed to eastern DR Congo, saying the regional mission did what could not be achieved in three decades.
In an interview with France 24, Ruto said however that the security crisis in eastern DR Congo “is not a problem of a year; this is a problem of 30 years.”
“[Over] the last six months we have managed to do what was not done in 30 years we have stabilized the place.”
The EAC regional force (EACRF) was deployed to eastern DR Congo in November 2022, tasked with supporting regional efforts to restore peace in the troubled region. The EACRF has since secured the withdrawal of the M23 rebel group.
Though the Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi has been critical of the regional force, threatening to expel it from his country’s east, Ruto said the EAC mission “will not walk away from the people.”
“The problem in [DR Congo] is our problem,” said Ruto, adding that whether “welcome or no welcome,” the region would not let the Congolese people continue to suffer from decades-long insecurity.
On June 22, a regional mission visited Rumangabo military base, which will be the pre-cantonment area for the M23.
The Luanda agreement signed on November 23, 2022, had resolved that the M23 elements would be sent to Sabyinyo in DR Congo, a decision that was changed at the EAC summit held in Burundi on May 31. The same summit also extended the regional force’s mandate to September 2023.
“There is a real chance today that the M23 will be cantoned. In fact, the last Summit we had in Burundi, the [Congolese government] itself said, ‘Yes where we had identified as the cantonment area for M23 is not liveable because there is no water, there’s no road, there is nothing; it’s a bush.’ So, we said okay, let’s agree on a different place.”
Ruto stressed that there was “general acceptance that a lot of progress has been made. It could have been faster, maybe, but I don’t think it could have been faster than what it is.”
Eastern DR Congo is home to more than 120 local and foreign armed groups responsible for various atrocities and human rights abuses.
Multiple interventions including one of the United Nations largest peacekeeping missions have failed to end decades of violence.
