The African Union Calls for an “Immediate Cessation” of Hostilities in Eastern DR Congo
Refugees from the Nzulo internally displaced persons camp arrive at the Bulengo camp, Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, 22 January 2025. Thousands of people have fled the escalating violence between Rwanda-backed M23 rebels and the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC), seeking safety in Bulengo or Goma. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has displaced 237,000 people in 2025. (Ruanda) Photo: EFE/EPA/MARIE JEANNE MUNYERENKANA
January 25, 2025 Hour: 2:02 pm
The president of the African Union (AU) Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, called on Saturday for the “immediate cessation of all hostilities” in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where the rebel March 23 Movement (M23) has intensified fighting with the country’s army this week.
RELATED:
In a statement issued from the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, Mahamat stated that he is following “with great attention the deterioration of the humanitarian and security situation” in the east of the DRC.
The head of the Commission (secretariat) noted with “deep concern the threats that such events pose to the tireless and important efforts made under the two African peace mechanisms, particularly the Luanda process led by Angolan President João Manuel Lourenço.”
Mahamat expressed his “unreserved support for these efforts, which are the only way to resolve the ongoing tension between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Rwanda, on the one hand, and between the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its political-military opposition, on the other.”
He called for the “strict observance of the ceasefire agreed upon (in 2024) between the parties and the immediate cessation of all hostilities,” and urged to “preserve the lives of civilians.”
Finally, Mahamat made an “urgent appeal to the international community to mobilize all possible support for the populations affected by the severe collateral damage of this expanding war.”
The armed activity of the M23 resumed in November 2021 with lightning attacks in North Kivu, and in March 2022 the group began an offensive with the recurrent capture and loss of localities.
Since then, the group has advanced on several fronts to position itself near Goma, the capital of the northeastern province of North Kivu, which the M23 already occupied for ten days in 2012.
Since 1998, the east of the DRC has been engulfed in a conflict fueled by rebel militias and the army, despite the presence of the United Nations military mission.
Autor: ACJ
Fuente: EFE