KENYA: United Nations and African leaders meet in Nairobi to tackle Congo crisis

Record ID: 361818

  • Title: KENYA: United Nations and African leaders meet in Nairobi to tackle Congo crisis
  • Date: 7th November 2008
  • Summary: AFRICAN UNION CHAIRMAN, TANZANIA PRESIDENT JAKAYA KIKWETE WALKING OBASANJO SITTING NEXT TO U.S DEPUTY SECRETARY OF STATE FOR AFRICAN AFFAIRS JENDAYI FRASIER FRASIER SITTING
  • Embargoed: 22nd November 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Reuters ID: LVACY39AT6FRUFCF3FNG4EL1M3WE
  • Story Text: UN and African leaders meet in Nairobi to discuss ways to deal with the conflict in eastern Congo.
    U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon met African leaders at a summit in Kenya on Friday (November 7) to try and end the conflict in the east of Democratic Republic of Congo before it engulfs the whole region.
    Fighting between rebel leader Laurent Nkunda and Congolese forces has spread along the hilly, mineral-producing border region with Rwanda, uprooting hundreds of thousands of people and creating international alarm.
    One of the key issues leaders meeting in Kenya need to resolve for a lasting solution to the festering conflict is the presence in eastern Congo of Rwandan Hutu rebels who took part in the 1994 genocide.
    Over the past four years there have been various ceasefires and agreements to disarm all militant groups in the region, but little progress has been made on the ground and there have been frequent campaigns by Nkunda.
    He justifies his revolt as a legitimate one to protect ethnic Tutsis in Congo from the Hutu rebels, known as the FDLR, and says he wants talks with Congo's President Joseph Kabila.
    The region is also rich in minerals, such as coltan, which is used in mobile phones, making control of the remote terrain, far from Congo's capital Kinshasa, lucrative.
    Ban said before the summit he would encourage Kabila and Rwanda's President Paul Kagame "to find a path to peace".
    Rwanda denies supporting Nkunda and accuses Congo of backing the Hutu rebels in the east.
    While the leaders wrestle with their entrenched political differences, calls for more peacekeepers in the region are growing around the world to prevent a humanitarian disaster.
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