The crisis in eastern Congo has disrupted economic activity in East Africa, and especially air travel, with the region’s airlines staring at losses after suspending flights to the city of Goma, which has been taken by M23 rebels.
Kenya’s Jambo Jet was operating four flights to Goma per week before the M23 rebellion caused closure of the airspace a week ago.
Ethiopian Airlines also stopped flights to the volatile region. Uganda Airlines does not fly to Goma. But it suspended flights to Kinshasa for a day when rioters in the city attacked embassies, including Uganda's, but resumed full services the next day
Brussels Airlines announced that its Wednesday flights to and from Kinshasa had been cancelled.
According to Flight Radar 24, the cancellations continued on January 30 into the early days of February.
And Congolese Government Spokesperson Patrick Muyaya said RwandAir was not allowed into the country because of Rwanda's alleged support for the rebels.
The airline said it had decided to cancel all flights to Kinshasa, Lubumbashi and Goma "following the decision of the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to suspend RwandAir flights” on January 28.
“The crisis in eastern Congo has disrupted business activities in the region, with Kenya Airways having to reduce flights to the region,” Kenya’s Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi told reporters in his office on Wednesday.
“We definitely want an immediate and durable ceasefire to allow for all humanitarian activities to take place. We want the Vienna Convention to be respected,” said Mr Mudavadi, who is also the Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Cabinet Secretary.
UN Special Representative and head of the UN Peacekeeping mission, Bintou Keita, during a briefing at the UN Security Council last week, said the M23 had "declared the airspace over Goma closed".
Goma, located in the eastern part of the country, is a business hub for Rwanda, DRC, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.
Its capture has hampered movement of goods and people and created a humanitarian crisis.
“We want all the parties that are engaged in combat to come to the table and discuss the way out of the crisis,” Mr Mudavadi said.
The DRC conflict is also likely to stay on the radar of Kenyan banks that operate in DR Congo.
Equity and KCB have subsidiaries in the DRC, namely Banque Commerciale Du Congo and Trust Merchant Bank.
The conflict has displaced 5.6 million Congolese, with more than 4 million in the eastern provinces of South Kivu, North Kivu, and Ituri, according to the UNHCR.
“The impact of the recent escalation across eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been devastating for the civilian population. We welcome the ceasefire, but stress that only a lasting peace can bring relief here and allow life-saving aid to reach those in desperate need. Many of those who have been displaced in the past month have already fled violence multiple times. Whole generations in eastern DRC have known nothing but conflict, and their needs have been utterly neglected,” said Eric Batonon, Norwegian Refugee Council’s country director in the DRC in a statement.
Story updated to capture Uganda Airlines resumption of flights.
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