At a meeting attended by leaders from four African regional blocs to discuss the security crisis in eastern DR Congo, Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye cautioned against the duplication of efforts in attempts to help resolve the crisis in eastern DR Congo.

The meeting on Tuesday, June 27 discussed the coordination and harmonisation of regional responses to the conflict in eastern DR Congo.

Held in the Angolan capital, Luanda, at the invitation of the African Union (AU), the quadripartite meeting was attended by the presidents of DR Congo, Angola, Zimbabwe , Gabon, Comoros and Burundi.

Also present were Rwanda’s Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta and AU commission chairperson Amb Moussa Faki Mahamat, as well as representatives of the United Nations (UN).

In his speech, President Ndayishimiye welcomed the regional mobilization to support peace efforts for the east of DR Congo.

However, Ndayishimiye indicated that the leaders “must avoid, as far as possible, the superposition of initiatives on the situation in the [DR Congo],” his office tweeted.

Angolan President Joao Lourenço encouraged the leaders to “to prioritize the strengthening of the coordination of the comparative advantages that each of the Regional Economic Communities can offer in this process of pacifying the Great Lakes Region.”

The UN-backed Luanda and Nairobi processes have been running since 2022 seeking to restore peace in eastern DR Congo, which is home to more than 130 armed groups.

The East African Community (EAC) deployed a regional force to the volatile region in November 2022. The regional force has since secured the withdrawal of the M23 rebel group from several territories it had captured.

At the request of the Congolese government, in May, SADC leaders agreed to send troops to the volatile region of DR Congo but it is not yet clear if and when the SADC troops will deploy.

Angola, a SADC member, also announced, in March, that it would deploy troops to the country, under a bilateral arrangement.

The conflict in eastern DR Congo affected diplomatic relations with Rwanda, with Kinshasa accusing Kigali of supporting the M23 rebels.

Kigali denies the allegations and calls on DR Congo to address internal issues as well as stop supporting the genocidal FDLR militia, which was founded by remnants of Interahamwe and members of the former Rwandan genocidal regime’s army, who committed the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

Since mid-2022, President Lourenço, who chairs the Great Lakes bloc, has played the role of mediator between Rwanda and DR Congo. - Moise M. Bahati, The New Times