A summit seeking solutions to the violent conflict in Congo is underway in Tanzania
Zawadi Sifa who has been fleeing fighting from camp to camp, shares food with her seven children in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2025.(AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — A joint summit of leaders from eastern and southern Africa is underway in Tanzania as African governments try to find a solution to the violent conflict in eastern Congo, where rebels are threatening to overthrow the Congolese government.
President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, whose government is accused of backing the M23 rebels who now control the largest city in eastern Congo, is attending the summit in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s commercial capital. President Felix Tshisekedi of Congo is attending virtually.
The summit includes leaders from the East African Community bloc, of which both Rwanda and Congo are members, and those from the Southern African Development Community, or SADC, which includes countries ranging from Malawi to South Africa.
The M23 rebellion stems partly from Rwandan concerns that rebels opposed to Kagame’s government have been allowed by Congo’s military to be active in largely lawless parts of eastern Congo. Kagame also charges that Tshisekedi has overlooked the legitimate concerns of Congolese Tutsis who face discrimination.
Rwanda also has blamed the deployment of SADC peacekeepers to fight M23 combatants for worsening the conflict in North Kivu, a mineral-rich province in eastern Congo. Kagame insists that the deployment of SADC troops to eastern Congo is not a peaceful effort when the forces are fighting alongside Congolese forces to defeat the M23.
United Nations experts have asserted that some 4,000 Rwandan troops back M23 rebels in North Kivu. To take Goma, the North Kivu capital strategically located close to the Rwanda border, the rebels repulsed Congolese government troops who long had been supported by local militias known as Wazalendo in addition to regional peacekeepers and U.N. forces.
Kenyan President William Ruto, in his opening remarks, told leaders attending the summit that “the lives of millions depend on our ability to navigate this complex and challenging situation with wisdom, clarity of mind, empathy.”
Dialogue “is not a sign of weakness,” said Ruto, the current chair of the East African Community. “It is in this spirit that we must encourage all parties to put aside their differences and mobilize for engagements in constructive dialogue.”
Tshisekedi has previously rejected calls for direct talks with M23. His government sees the group as a Rwandan proxy army driven to exploit eastern Congo’s natural resources.
The M23 advance shattered a 2024 ceasefire and echoed the rebels’ earlier capture of Goma over a decade ago. The rebels now say they will attempt to govern the city that’s home to 2 million people, including hundreds of thousands displaced from elsewhere in the interior.
The rebels have vowed to go all the way to Kinshasa, the Congolese national capital.
The Congo River Alliance, a coalition of rebel groups including M23, said in an open letter to the summit that they are fighting a Congolese regime that “flouted republican norms” and is “becoming an appalling danger for the Congolese people.”
“Those who are fighting against Mr. Tshisekedi are indeed sons of the country, nationals of all the provinces,” it said. “Since our revolution is national, it encompasses people of all ethnic and community backgrounds, including Congolese citizens who speak the Kinyarwanda language.”
The letter, signed by Corneille Nangaa, a leader of the Congo River Alliance, said the group was “open for a direct dialogue” with the Congolese government.