The rapprochement between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda has “positive outcome for peace and stability of the Great Lake region,” the UN special envoy to the Great Lake region, Olusegun Obasanjo, said.
For one year, Obasanjo has been taking actions with co-facilitator former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa to help the two parties find solution to the successive crises.
On Monday, Obasanjo hailed before the UN Security Council of the United Nations, the “declining threat of the presence of armed groups, particularly the Democratic Force for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), in the last months, due to military operations carried out by the Congolese military.”
He said that the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP), formerly led by renegade general Laurent Nkunda, does no longer exist as a politico-military organization.
The UN special envoy repeated that the talks between Presidents Joseph Kabila and Paul Kagame culminated with the decision they took on August to joint their forces in order to put an end to the presence of the FDLR on Congolese soil.
According to him, the situation is moving in the right direction since “CNDP got rid of Laurent Nkunda itself” so as to endorse a political solution to the Congolese crisis despite “persistent division” following this rapprochement and the military operations.
“In addition, the UN special envoy praised the signing of Economic cooperation agreements between DR Congo and Rwanda and the restoration of diplomatic relations marked in the last two weeks by the appointment of Ambassadors to Kigali and Kinshasa,” the release added.
The former Nigerian President, who will in December head an assessment mission on progress made in the implementation of different agreements signed between DR Congo and Rwanda, said that the rapprochement “remained however fragile and the restoration of confidence between the peoples of DR Congo and Rwanda would take time.”
As far as means for”definitive” solution to the crisis are concerned, he announced that he would ask the UN to change its Support office in Nairobi into a service that would allow a close monitoring of the implementation of peace agreements signed on 23 March 2009 in Goma between the DR Congo government and the CNDP.
He reiterated the will of the UN to pursue regional efforts to avoid resumption of violence and consolidate the rapprochement between the two states.
Source African Press Agency
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