The African Union has agreed to foot half the cost of the Military Assessment Team, which was officially launched on September 22, in Goma, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda Today can exclusively report.

The AU’s move comes as negotiations continue between the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region and the United Nations’ stabilisation mission in the DRC, Monusco, to chip in with logistical support.

The Military Assessment Team, which comprises two members each from the 11 ICGLR member states, will work alongside the expanded Joint Verification Mechanism team — which regional Ministers for Defence launched on September 14, in Goma — and the Joint Intelligence Fusion Centre in a delicate military-political arrangement to try and resolve the crisis in eastern DRC.

The assessment team’s main brief is to come up with the finer details of how the proposed Neutral International Force will work, if and when it is deployed. Ideally, deployment is supposed to be sometime in December subject to the UN’s approval.

Regional heads of state, led by Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, the current chair of the ICGLR, will be seeking this approval when they meet UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a mini-summit the latter has convened on September 27 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

READ: Regional leaders head to UN to ‘sell’ neutral force idea

The Joint Verification Mechanism currently fills the gap the Neutral International Force is supposed to occupy as it goes about verifying claims and counterclaims of rebel support between DR Congo and Rwanda.

“The Joint Verification Mechanism has already started working and will be stationed in Goma until the neutral force is deployed,” a senior official at the ICGLR told Rwanda Today.

It comprises 24 senior military officers from the 11 ICGLR member countries, and is also supposed to monitor especially claims of illegal exploitation of DR Congo’s natural resources that are allegedly taken throughout Rwanda as well as patrol the common border.

The team, commanded by Uganda’s Brig. Gen. Geoffrey Muhesi, “will do whatever they can” with regards to patrolling the border in spite of their small number.

“It is not about perfection, it is about doing something,” the official told Rwanda Today.

“The most important thing is that they are on the ground and have begun their tasks as clearly elaborated in their terms of reference that all member states agreed to,” he added.

The idea of a joint verification mechanism goes back eight years and has always been between Rwanda and DR Congo, who have contributed one more officer each than their counterparts who have contributed only two.

The decision to expand it was made in July on the sidelines of the AU summit in Addis Ababa by regional heads of state in their first of three extraordinary meetings to date to try and resolve the latest conflict in Eastern DRC.

Rwanda has on several occasions accused DR Congo of circumventing the JVM processes to the detriment of progress made in tackling conflict-related allegations from both sides. The latest accusation is contained in its response to the interim report of the UN Group of Experts that accused Rwanda of backing M23 rebels.

On account of that UN report, six of Rwanda’s development partners, including its main allies the US and the UK, suspended aid totalling $128 million.

READ: Writing on the wall for Kagame as key donors cut aid, huge government projects face delays

So far, only the UK has said it will restored half the aid it suspended. Rwanda responded to these suspensions by activating its own development fund, Agaciro, which the government had agreed to at last year’s National Dialogue. It has so far collected Rwf 18 billion ($29 million).

READ: Rwanda sets up fund to raise domestic capital

Louise Mushikiwabo, Rwanda’s Foreign Affairs Minister, while speaking to reporters on September 11 welcomed the expansion and immediate deployment of the JVM, “because it will allow the region and Rwanda in particular, to show exactly what is going on along our borders, including some of the issues we have been providing our position on. I think it will be important to have other countries testify to the same.”

According to Brig. Gen. Joseph Nzabamwita, the spokesperson of Rwanda’s army, the JVM marks the beginning of implementing solutions to the perpetual unrest in eastern DR Congo and is a key component to long-lasting solutions towards peace in this region.

The JVM is the second tangible success that regional heads of state have delivered since July when they started urgent meetings to try to resolve the latest conflict in eastern DR Congo.

The conflict broke out in April after sections of the Congolese army, formerly integrated from the National Congress for the Defence of the People, defected, citing marginalisation.