Briefings
7 – 13 March 2013
From next Monday, 18 March, until 28 March, in New York the UN Final Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty will take place. The first round of negotiations was held in July 2012, but did not result in an agreement on a treaty text. Organizations and human rights activists are urging the international community to adopt robust rules on international transfers of conventional arms and ammunition[…]
28 February – 6 March 2013
With the removal of political coordinator Jean-Marie Runiga by military leader Sultani Makenga, the M23 rebel movement in eastern DR Congo split up into a pro-Makenga and a pro-Bosco Ntaganda faction, on the ground as well as at the Kampala peace talks. The rebels left the area of Rutshuru town for the south of the territory, where heavy clashes were reported between the two factions.[…]
21 – 27 February 2013
Last Sunday in Addis Ababa the “Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Region” was signed by the DR Congo, its nine neighbours and South Africa, as well as by the UN and the African organisations AU, ICGLR and SADC. In this agreement the neighbouring countries make a renewed commitment not to interfere in the DRC, and the DRC to boost reforms, in
14 – 20 February 2013
As the Kampala talks between the M23 and Kinshasa seem to have remained in deadlock this week, the UN has announced a second meeting in Addis Ababa to secure the signature of a UN-brokered peace accord for eastern DRC, due to take place on 24 February 2013. The announcement comes as the DRC deploys a 500 strong battalion of its own troops to strengthen the AU-led taskforce hunting the Lords’ Resis
7 – 13 February 2013
Last Wednesday saw the adoption of an evaluation report on the 23 March 2009 agreement between Kinshasa and the then CNDP, by Congolese and M23 delegates in Kampala. The profound differences between the two delegations has led commentators to suggest that the talks are likely to end in failure, and civil society representatives have demanded that Kinshasa now disengage from the negotiations.
31 January – 6 February 2013
Having addressed the DRC’s implementation of the March 2009 agreement, talks in Kampala appear to have entered a new phase with Congolese delegates calling for a reduction in the number of participants engaged. Meanwhile, as US sanctions come into force for leading members of the M23, Germany has reportedly lifted its aid suspension on Rwanda.[…]
17 – 23 January 2013
While, in the Central African Republic, Nicolas Tiangaye, the prime minister thrust upon President Bozizé by opposition and rebels, is trying to form his transition government, Seleka rebels on the field appear to be dissatisfied with the Libreville accords.[…]
10 – 16 January 2013
The Government of the Central African Republic (CAR) and the Seleka rebel alliance signed a peace agreement last week in Libreville, Gabon. CAR President Bozizé will remain in power until 2016, but a transitional unity government will be formed and legislative elections held in 12 months.[…]
3 – 9 January 2013
In an offensive launched on 10 December, a coalition of rebel groups, named Seleka, in the past weeks has taken control of about one third of the Central African Republic (CAR), seriously threatening the regime of President Bozizé.[…]
12 – 18 December 2012
n Kampala, the only progress in the talks between the DR Congo Government and the M23 rebels was the agreement signed yesterday, 18 December, on the rules of procedure of the discussions to come. On the ground, the residents of Goma live in fear of a new attack on the city.[…]
5 – 11 December 2012
In the absence of President Kabila and the political leader of M23, in Kampala talks between the DRC Government and the rebel movement finally started, amid serious tensions and regarded with a considerable amount of scepticism by many Congolese.[…]
28 November – 4 December 2012
Delaying their withdrawal for several days, the M23 rebel movement finally pulled out of the city of Goma, in line with the deal brokered last week in Kampala. A day after that agreement the UN Security Council adopted a new resolution demanding an end to all outside support to M23, without mentioning Rwanda or Uganda.[…]
21 – 27 November 2012
Tensions remained high in Goma, as the M23 continued to occupy the city. Political leaders flew to Kampala on the 26th of November to negotiate a resolution to fighting and to find a way to make the M23 withdraw. The summit decreed that the M23 had withdraw from territories in the eastern DRC within 48 hours.[…]
14 – 20 November 2012
On the 14th of November, Uganda sealed its Bunagana border post with the DRC in Kisoro district. The closure was in response to claims that members of the rebel group M23 in eastern DRC were using the border post to finance their activities.[…]
7 – 13 November 2012
Many countries, including the UK, are reconsidering relations with and aid to Rwanda and Uganda following links to human rights abuses by M23 rebels in the DRC over the last six months. Meanwhile the USA and Belgium have suspended military cooperation with Rwanda. Rwanda and Uganda themselves have had strong reactions over such possible claims in the UN Group of Experts’ report on DRC.[…]
31 October – 6 November 2012
Because of the accusations in the leaked UN Group of Experts report that Uganda, together with Rwanda, is backing the M23 rebel movement in eastern DR Congo, the Ugandan government last week has threatened to withdraw its troops from its international peacekeeping missions in Somalia, DRC and Central African Republic. […]
24 – 30 October 2012
In Goma, North Kivu, last week the Ministers of Defence of the Great Lakes region discussed the operationalisation of the international neutral force that is meant to be deployed along the border between Rwanda and the DRC. A few days earlier in Brussels, Congo’s Prime Minister Matata Ponyo doubted the possibility of a regional solution to the conflict in eastern DRC, calling it “almost hypothetic
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