A panel of Civil Society experts in the Democratic Republic of Congo has called on President Félix Tshisekedi to hold peace talks with Rwandan President Paul Kagame amidst ongoing tensions between the two countries.
Insecurities have persisted around the territory bordering the two nations with Tshisekedi accusing Kagame of supporting the Congolese M23 rebels in their terrorism attacks in eastern DR Congo.
However, the Civil Society experts call on Tshisekedi to come to a round table meeting with Kagame to reach a peaceful agreement to end the hostilities affecting the region.
Commemorating World International Refugee Day on Monday, Dieudonné Musagalusha, coordinator of the panel of Civil Society experts, proposed a meeting between Tshisekedi and Kagame under the mediation of Congo Republic President Dénis Sassou Nguesso in order to address the dramatic situation of uprooted people in the Great Lakes subregion.
“Today we celebrate Refugee Day, the situation is catastrophic in the true sense of the word. To the point that there are millions of people who are both refugees and displaced people and to avoid that this could pose conceptual problems, we now speak of uprooted people” Musagalusha said.
“This situation is catastrophic and can happen to anyone to the point where it is now causing the annihilation of human beings in this sector, which is why we, as a panel of experts from civil society, as pacifists, do not subscribe.”
According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), nearly 6 million internally displaced people in the provinces of Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu and Tanganyika in the DRC have been identified at the beginning year 2024.
