PM states Lesotho position of M23/DRC war
MOSA MAOENG
MASERU – Prime Minister Ntsokoane Matekane says Lesotho remains steadfast in working hard to see to it that the sovereignty and peace of the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is restored. Matekane declared this position during a press conference on Tuesday this week while giving a report on the Southern African Development Committee (SADC) Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government held in Harare, Zimbabwe, on January 31.
The summit convened to deliberate on the security situation and the ongoing attacks on DRC initiated by M23 rebels, leading to the deployment of the SADC and the United Nations (UN) peace-keeping troops in the country.
Violence in the DRC is scattered over the eastern part of the country, while the northern part of North Kivu has been in turmoil for the last four or five decades now. That’s where the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a terrorist organization, has been based.
But with the joint operations between the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces and the Armed Forces of the DRC (FARDC), they seem to have been contained for the first time in decades.
The most worrying situation is in Ituri and the southern part of North Kivu, where the March 23 Movement (M23) has been resurgent.
Last year the M23 conflict displaced more than two million people.
Several international and regional missions have tried to help restore peace and security in the eastern DRC in recent years.
UN peacekeepers, MONUSCO, have been there the longest, since 1999. SADC has also deployed a separate regional operation to eastern DRC—the SADC Mission in the DRC (SAMIDRC).
“The ongoing war, initiated by the M23, has seen the SAMIDRC attacked and several peacekeepers from South Africa, Tanzania and Malawi were killed, putting the stability of the Southern African region in jeopardy,” he said.
Matekane said the situation prompted the SADC Heads of State to meet and chart a way forward to save lives and eventually arrive at a decision to engage regional Ministers of Defence and military Chiefs of Staff to assess the situation and the safety of the SADC peace-keeping troops deployed there.
He said they have called for a joint summit as SADC and East African Community (EAC) to develop together a unified approach as a way of restoring peace, to intensify diplomatic engagement through the Luanda and Nairobi peace processes to push for a sustainable ceasefire.
“The other point is to work together to restore basic services such as electricity, water and humanitarian aid for affected communities. We have urged all responsible parties to discus to hold deliberate discussions to solve this issue and peacemaking,” Matekane said.
He concluded that Lesotho will continue to stand firm with the DRC in its pursuit of sovereignty and lasting peace, adding that Lesotho will continue to play its part in ensuring that Africa moves towards a future free from violence and instability.
Zimbabwean president and chairperson of the SADC, Emmerson Mnangagwa, chaired the summit.
In latest reports, the Rwandan-backed M23 has announced a unilateral humanitarian ceasefire from Tuesday in the perennially explosive east of the DRC, following calls for a safe corridor for aid and hundreds of thousands of displaced people.
The announcement on Monday came shortly after a UN health agency said at least 900 people were killed in last week’s fighting in the DRC’s eastern city of Goma between the rebels and Congolese forces.
Fighting has stopped in the city of Goma, which M23 forces claimed to have captured last week, but clashes have spread to the neighbouring province of South Kivu, raising fears of an M23 advance to its capital Bukavu.
In more than three years of fighting, half a dozen ceasefires and truces have been declared, before being systematically broken.
