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Internet photo)
Speaking during the signing ceremony of the peace deal of the DRC
held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, President Kikwete said the people of the
DRC had suffered for too long.
He insisted that they now deserve a break. Leaders from Africa’s
Great Lakes Region nations signed a new peace deal aimed at bringing
stability to the war-torn east of the DRC and will enable the countries
to send a collective total of 2,500 troops to DRC.
“The signatures we have just appended to the Framework are a solemn
undertaking and commitment to deliver on the aspirations of the people
of DRC and the Great Lakes Region for peace, security, stability and
cooperation.
They deserve to live a better life; a life where their safety and
security is assured and guaranteed; a life where they pre-occupy
themselves with more important things for improving their living
conditions,” the president told the gathering.
The DRC’s mineral-rich east has been ravaged by numerous armed
groups, with new rebel movements spawned on a regular basis, some of
them with backing from neighbouring countries. The latest surge in
violence was in 2012 and culminated in the rebel March 23 Movement (M23)
force briefly seizing the key town of Goma last November.
M23, which was not invited to yesterday’s event, was founded by
former fighters of an ethnic-Tutsi rebel group whose members were
integrated into the regular army under a peace deal whose terms they
claim were never fully delivered. The group’s main demand now is the
full implementation of a peace accord signed on March 23, 2009.
M23 controls part of Rutshuru region, an unstable but fertile
territory that lies in mineral-rich North Kivu province and borders on
Rwanda and Uganda. Several of its leaders have been hit by UN sanctions
over alleged atrocities. The group has been accused of raping women and
girls, using child soldiers and killing civilians. Peace talks have been
held in Uganda, but so far have made little headway.