At the end of the United States / Africa summit, the American secretary of state asked Kigali on Thursday to act to allow the application of the Luanda agreement and therefore the withdrawal of the rebel group M23.
Antony Blinken was very clear, Thursday December 15, the last day of the US/Africa summit. The head of American diplomacy has called for an end to all external support for non-state armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In this context, he called on Rwanda to “ use one’s influence ” on the M23 to convince the rebels to lay down their arms.
This request is therefore addressed directly to President Kagame, with whom the Secretary of State spoke on the telephone before this summit. This also follows a meeting Tuesday in Washington with the Congolese head of state, Felix Tshisekedi.
Rwanda must “encourage” de-escalation
The American diplomat returned to the Luanda agreement signed three weeks ago, under Angolan mediation. A compromise ” important, very promising for the end of the conflict “, did he declare. However, on the ground, this text has great difficulty in being applied. The fighting continues and there is no retreat of the M23 even if, for the first time, the rebels and the Congolese army held a unprecedented meeting Monday in Kibumba.
Antony Blinken therefore recalled that, however, ” all parties had agreed to withdraw and for a de-escalation “, and that Rwanda should ” encourage ” this process. The American Secretary of State concluded that during the summit, there had been work on a roadmap intended to apply the text. He promised a lot of follow-up in the days to come.
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