Browsing: Conflict Resolution in DRC

DRC-UAE mining deal

DRC President Félix Tshisekedi has announced the signing of a mining deal with the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Many other companies have shied away from the troubled Eastern region. However, the UAE company Primera Group has signed a share deal for export rights of minerals mined in the region.…

DRC President Felix Tshisekedi (pictured), reassures investors through ANAPI, the DRC investment portal, the country is safe and open for business. The statement comes in the wake of a recent extraordinary summit of the EAC Heads of State that resolved for an immediate cease-fire by all parties. Photo/Reuters
  • DRC, through its investment portal ANAPI reassures investors
  • Rwanda slams US statement saying it undermines regional peace process
  • EAC Heads of State order immediate cease fire in Rwanda-DRC conflict

Rwanda should stop supporting the rebel group and withdraw its soldiers from the DRC, the US State Department has said in an official statement.

This US call for Rwanda to ‘cease and desist’ aiding rebel groups and to also recall its troops from the DRC is the latest effort by the international community to intervene in the protracted dispute between the two countries.

The US says Rwanda’s alleged aid to rebel factions in the DRC is undermining the regional peace process.

The statement comes only days after the East African Community (EAC) Heads of State met in the Burundi capital of Bujumbura. The meeting was an Extra-Ordinary Summit held to evaluate the “Security Situation in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

June Njoroge Awakening the Sleeping Giant Article Caption President of the DRC Felix Antoine Tshisekedigiving his address at the 77th session of UNGA in Newyork.Image Source DW

The scramble for, partition and exploitation of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s vast natural resources by both regional and international players, have for centuries robbed the country of its peace.

Since the dark colonial era of King Leopold II when the DRC was known as the Belgian Congo in the 19th and 20th centuries respectively, the country has incessantly fought to just survive. The so-called ‘resource-curse’, has left citizens to bear the brunt of the ever-emerging conflicts.

The achievement of peace in the DR Congo has hitherto seemed an elusive dream, but could the incumbent President Félix Antoine Tshisekedi, be the torchbearer that finally brings peace to the Congo?

Unlike his predecessor, Joseph Kabila, Tshisekedi has made the achievement of peace in DRC top of his agenda, since taking over leadership in 2019, pegging his legacy to this quest. Why is the attainment of peace so important to Tshisekedi? Not…