East Africa's leaders have agreed to extend until September the mandate of
a regional military force deployed to quell violence in the strife-torn east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.The seven-nation East African Community (EAC) began the deployment
last November with Kenyan soldiers arriving in the volatile region, followed
this year by Burundian, Ugandan and South Sudanese contingents.
Its future had been in question, with DR Congo's President Felix
Tshisekedi this month accusing troops of "cohabitation" with rebels
and hinting the regional force could leave by the end of June.
But at a summit in Burundi on Wednesday, the EAC agreed to keep
their troops on the ground until September 8 to consolidate "gains"
made.
"The summit reiterated its call to all parties to de-escalate
tensions and to use established regional, continental, international mechanisms
to resolve any disputes in the implementation of peace in eastern DRC,"
said a statement.
Dozens of armed groups plague the mineral-rich eastern DR Congo, a
legacy of regional wars that raged in the 1990s and 2000s.
One group, the M23, has seized swathes of territory in an uprising
that has displaced over a million people since late 2021, according to the UN
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The EAC force has taken over some areas previously occupied by the
M23 but has so far failed to thwart the insurgency.
Kinshasa wants the force to have an "offensive" mandate
to push back M23 fighters, and many residents have expressed disappointment
that M23 continues to operate with impunity.
Earlier this month, southern African nations agreed to deploy
their own troops to eastern DR Congo to restore peace and security.
The DR Congo has repeatedly accused its neighbour Rwanda, an EAC
member, of backing the rebels, a charge Kigali denies.
The United States and several other Western countries, as well as
independent UN experts, have also concluded that Rwanda is backing the rebels
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