A senior United Nations official has told the Security Council there is a “window of opportunity” for peace in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, a mineral-rich region plagued by decades of conflict. Huang Xia, the UN special envoy for the impacted Great Lakes Region, on Tuesday said that both US- and Qatar-led peace processes have achieved “notable progress”. However, “despite this sustained diplomatic effort, the security and humanitarian situation in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has continued to worsen”, he added.
Several parties, including the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group and the Congolese army, have clashed in the territory, prompting a series of international diplomatic efforts. Huang stressed the “urgency of seizing the window of opportunity, which is currently offered by the increased alignment of peace efforts”. The DRC and Rwanda also formalised a US-brokered peace deal in December in Washington, DC.
However, fighting has continued on the ground. New talks were held in August in Switzerland, involving representatives from the United States, Qatar and the African Union. Huang said the UN would facilitate a meeting on October 18 in Zambia’s capital, Lusaka, between the defence ministers of Burundi, the DRC, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania.
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