After the UN Security Council, a delegation from the African Union Peace and Security Council visited eastern DRC, still plagued by violence. The objective: to observe the application on the ground of the plan to end the crisis imagined at the last AU summit. A plan undermined since the ceasefire which was to come into force on March 7 was not respected.
Diplomatic missions follow one another in the Democratic Republic of Congo. After the United Nations Security Council, it was a delegation from the Peace and Security Council of the African Union which went to the east of the DRC, in the grip of significant violence linked in particular to the conflict against the rebels of the M23, but also in Kinshasa , the capital, on March 22. There she met the military authorities, representatives of Monusco, the UN mission, and the East African force, before meeting with President Tshisekedi.
If the delegation of the AU Peace and Security Council was able to observe Goma that the fighting had decreased in intensity in recent days, they were also able to realize that the realization of the last plan of the East African region regarding the conflict with the M23 was in serious jeopardy. Indeed, by March 30, that is to say in less than a week, the rebels must have withdrawn from all the localities conquered in recent months and have fallen back to several places of cantonment under observation of East African Community (EAC) troops.
Meeting in Bujumbura
But on the ground, this next deadline seems difficult to hold. Admittedly, the East African force has announced in recent hours that it has recovered positions around Saké and on the road leading to Kitchanga, but the rebels still control part of North Kivu. According to humanitarian and security sources contacted in the region, they remain particularly visible in the territory of Rutshuru as well as in that neighboring Masisi. Sources that testify to the presence of the M23 also in areas where they are supposed to have already withdrawn.
This situation is, in any case, carefully examined this weekend in Bujumbura. Indeed, the chiefs of staff of the EAC countries are currently meeting in Burundi to take stock of this crisis. At the same time, General Kaputa, Deputy Force Commander, has just announced the arrival and deployment in Rutshuru of Ugandan troops before the end of March.