Eastern and southern African regional blocs have appointed former leaders from Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria to oversee their peace process for the Democratic Republic of Congo where fighting has intensified in the east of the country.
The East African Community (EAC) and Southern African Development Community (SADC) have come together in recent weeks in an attempt to bring peace to eastern DRC, where the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group has seized large swathes of territory, triggering a humanitarian crisis.
The two blocs agreed in a summit on February 8 to merge two separate peace processes — based in Luanda and Nairobi — that were operating before the latest escalation of violence.
Late Monday, they issued a statement that they had appointed ex-Kenya president Uhuru Kenyatta, ex-Ethiopia prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn and ex-Nigeria president Olusegun Obasanjo as “facilitators” of this new peace process.
It said the key goals included an “immediate and unconditional ceasefire” as well as humanitarian supplies and securitisation of the airport at Goma, one of the key cities taken by M23.
The statement said the EAC and SADC would hold a ministerial meeting on Friday to “work on the details of the ceasefire”.
Their summit on February 8 also called for a ceasefire, but this failed to take hold.