The emergency meeting of the UN Security Council scheduled for Monday on the fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been brought forward to Sunday due to the escalation of hostilities, it has been reported. learned from diplomatic sources.
The meeting requested by Kinshasa, a request relayed by France, will take place on Sunday at 10:00 a.m. (3:00 p.m. GMT), with the expected intervention of the head of the UN peacekeeping mission in the country (MONUSCO), Bintou Keita, these sources specified.
Note that Kinshasa announced on Saturday that it would recall its diplomats to Kigali after the intensification of fighting in eastern DRC between the Congolese army and the M23, an anti-government armed group supported by Rwanda and its army.
After the failure of DRC-Rwanda mediation under the aegis of Angola, the M23 and 3,000 to 4,000 Rwandan soldiers, according to the UN, have rapidly gained ground in recent weeks. They now almost completely surround the capital of the North Kivu province, Goma, which has a million inhabitants and at least as many displaced people.
In a letter sent by the Congolese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Rwandan embassy in Kinshasa, dated Friday and sent to the press on Saturday evening by the Congolese presidency, the DRC informs “the recall of diplomats from the Embassy of the Democratic Republic of Congo in Kigali with immediate effect”, without further details.
Earlier today, the African Union (AU) urged “immediate cessation” fighting and demanding “the strict observation of the ceasefire agreed between the parties”.
In the east of the DRC, rich in natural resources, conflicts have continued for more than thirty years. Half a dozen ceasefires and truces have already been declared and then broken in the region. The last ceasefire was signed at the end of July.
-The European Union also called on the M23 to “stop his advance” and Rwanda to “withdraw immediately” in a declaration signed by the 27 member countries.
On Thursday, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, said he ” alarm “ by this resurgence of violence which could worsen “the risk of a regional war”.
Already thirteen foreign soldiers, including three peacekeepers, have been killed in recent days in battles against the M23.
Two South African soldiers and one Uruguayan from the United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) died, according to the armies of the two countries. MONUSCO, which has some 15,000 soldiers, announced on Friday that it was “actively engaged in intense combat” against the M23 with one of its elite units.
Seven other South Africans and three Malawians involved in SAMIRDC, the regional force of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), were also killed, according to the national armies. SAMIRDC has been deployed in eastern DRC since 2023 and includes 2,900 South African soldiers.
