African leaders trying to end an 18-month-old uprising in Congo called on Thursday, September 5th, for stalled talks between the government and eastern rebels to restart within three days.
Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) government and M23 rebels began Ugandan-hosted talks after the rebels briefly seized the city of Goma late last year, but negotiations have stalled and heavy fighting has resumed in recent weeks.
Congo's army, backed by a new U.N. intervention brigade, with a tough mandate to crush armed groups, has beaten back rebels from positions in the hills overlooking Goma but it has not extended gains deep into M23 territory.
Mediating heads of state from the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) met in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, to sign a joint communique and discuss further action in the DRC.
Addressing the meeting and reading from the communique, signed by DRC President Joseph Kabila, Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni, Ugandan Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa said the dialogue would restart imminently.
"To direct that the Kampala dialogue resumes within three days after this extraordinary summit and conclude within 14 days, during which period maximum restraint must be exercised on the ground to allow talks to conclude," he said.
The communique did not say what steps regional leaders would take if their appeal was not met but demanded that the rebels cease all hostilities.
"M23 should put an end to all military activities and stop war and threats of overthrowing the lawful government of the DRC," added Kutesa.
Talks with the rebels are unpopular in Congo, where residents are tired of years of fighting, while Kinshasa has in the past called for the rebels to disarm ahead of any talks.
The rebels have said an interim deal signed in Ethiopia last year entitled them to retake positions they occupied before being driven back by U.N.-backed government troops last week.
The leaders, drawn from Rwanda, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania and South Sudan also reiterated their commitment maintaining pressure on the M23 until they stopped fighting.
Museveni said the prospective talks were needed, adding that he was optimistic of their chances of success.
"The dialogue we have today with the Congo government, between the facilitator and myself and his excellency, President Kabila, if they are carried forward we can easily get this group of M23 to come out peacefully so that the United Nations forces in Congo and the international brigade deal with the other criminal forces which have for long been in the Congo," he said.
M23 took up arms last year accusing Kinshasa of reneging on the terms of a 2009 deal to end a previous uprising.
Tensions have been fuelled by accusations by U.N. experts that Rwanda is backing the rebels.
Kigali denies supporting M23 but last week threatened to send its army into Congo after it accused its neighbour of shelling its territory.
Millions of people have died from violence, disease and hunger since the 1990s as foreign-backed ethnic rebel groups have fought for control of eastern Congo's rich deposits of gold, diamonds and tin, destabilising the Great Lakes region.
