Leaders agree to merge Luanda, Nairobi talks on Congo

The leaders who held a joint summit in the Tanzanian port city of Dar es Salaam agreed to merge the Luanda and Nairobi processes to speed up resolution of the historical conflict that has claimed 3,000 lives in the past fortnight and displaced thousands of civilians since it escalated in mid-January.
"The processes should be merged into a Luanda/Nairobi process and strengthened to enhance complementarity. The joint summit also mandated the co-chairs, in consultation with the African Union, to consider and appoint additional facilitators, including from other regions of Africa, to support the merged process," a communique issued after the EAC-SADC Joint Heads of State Summit said.

It called for the restoration of essential utilities and supply lines for food and other basic commodities to ensure humanitarian support for victims of the conflict, and directed army chiefs from the EAC and SADC blocs to meet within the next five days to agree on an implementation plan towards fulfilling the summit's decisions.

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The army chiefs' meeting is expected to "provide technical direction on immediate and unconditional ceasefire and cessation of hostilities, provision of humanitarian assistance, develop a securitisation plan for Goma and surrounding areas, opening of the main supply routes, immediate re-opening of Goma airport," the communique said.

The summit also directed the resumption of direct negotiations among all state and non-state actors, military and non-military -- including the M23 -- under the new framework.

It passed a resolution for FDLR forces, remnants of the genocidaire force responsible for the 1994 Rwanda genocide against the Tutsi, to be neutralised, and Rwanda's defensive measures to be lifted and its forces "disengaged" from the DRC forthwith.
"Modalities for withdrawal of uninvited foreign armed forces from the territory of the DRC should be developed and implemented," the communique said.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan hosted the Dar summit to bring leaders of the two regional blocs together for the first time in a roundtable discussion of the DRC crisis with the aim of reaching consensus on the next steps towards resolving it.   
The heads of state and government in attendance – with DRC’s Felix Tshisekedi participating virtually – remained closeted in the main State House conference hall for almost seven hours as they thrashed out options for a lasting solution to the DRC conflict that would prevent further bloodshed.   
Tshisekedi’s physical absence, again, meant another missed opportunity for him and Rwanda’s Kagame to have a face-to-face interaction that fellow leaders had hoped for to help clear up their personal differences.
Tshisekedi was also a virtual participant in the SADC extraordinary summit held in Harare, Zimbabwe on January 31 to discuss the same matter, after skipping the EAC virtual summit two days earlier without apology. 
For the Dar summit, he sent DRC prime minister Judith Suminwa.  
The presidents who attended the were Samia, Kagame, and Kenya's William Ruto and Zimbabwe's Emmerson Mnangagwa who are the EAC and SADC chairpersons, respectively.
Also present were Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Somalia's Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud and Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia. South African president Cyril Ramaphosa flew into Dar es Salaam in the afternoon to join the discussions after they had begun. 
Others were Burundi Prime Minister Lt-Gen Gervais Ndirakobuca, the Foreign ministers of Angola and Malawi Téte António and Nancy Tembo, respectively,  South Sudan's EAC Affairs minister Deng Alor Kuol and Madagascar's Armed Forces minister Lt-Gen Lala Monja Delphin Sahivelo.
African Union Commission chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat was also present at the summit's opening ceremony, but there were reports that he was excluded from the main discussions.

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In their remarks at the opening ceremony, Samia, Ruto and Mnangagwa all underscored the urgency of collaboration between the two blocs to prevent the DRC crisis from reaping huge economic, social and humanitarian consequences for both.
Mnangagwa called on his fellow regional leaders to approach the main agenda of the meeting with "openness, honesty, flexibility, and commitment to build lasting peace in Africa."
Ruto said the EAC's position was that diplomatic rather than military interventionswas still the best way to bring a lasting solution to the DRC crisis. He described the situation as one that "can be solved, should be solved, must be solved." 
Samia, who chairs the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence, and Security Cooperation, noted that the prolonged conflict in eastern DRC had already "transcended its borders to create far-reaching effects in neighbouring countries."
"As regional leaders, history will judge us harshly if we remain still and watch the situation worsen day by day," she said. "In line with the principle of African solutions for Africa’s problems, our countries have a collective responsibility to ensure we urgently address the existing security challenges that have heavily impacted the well-being of innocent civilians."