GOMA, Congo (AP) — Congo’s largest church organizations met Wednesday with Rwanda-backed rebels in the country’s east in the latest push for peace and dialogue after weekslong fighting that saw the rebels seize the region’s largest city of Goma.
A joint delegation from the National Episcopal Conference of Congo (CENCO) and the Church of Christ in Congo (ECC) – two of the largest church organizations in the country – arrived in Goma on Wednesday and met with Corneille Nangaa, who has emerged as the M23 rebels’ political leader since they seized Goma in late January during a major escalation in their yearslong fighting with Congolese forces.
“(The meeting) was an opportunity to ... seek an end to the war as soon as possible, because we remain convinced that the solution to this crisis is not military,” Bishop Donatien Nshole, secretary-general of CENCO said after the meeting.
All parties to the conflict must also work to restore infrastructural services in Goma, which served as a critical humanitarian hub hosting many of the 6.5 million displaced by the conflict, said Bishop Nshole.
Supported by some 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, according to the U.N., the M23 rebels are the most prominent of more than 100 armed groups vying for control of Congo’s mineral-rich east. The recent fighting in and around Goma has claimed at least 2,000 lives, according to Congolese authorities.
Efforts from African neighbors to advance peace talks have yielded little results. Despite declaring a unilateral ceasefire, the rebels were still fighting with government forces as of Wednesday as they tried to take more towns close to South Kivu’s provincial capital of Bukavu, the U.N. and local authorities said.
“Local partners reported fighting early this morning in Ihusi locality about 70 kilometers north of Bukavu, with people fleeing to nearby towns and islands in Lake Kivu,” U.N. Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters on Wednesday.
While Congo’s government says it will agree to talks with the M23 only if done in the framework of past peace efforts, its government dismissed the rebels’ announcement of a ceasefire as false and has called for sanctions against the rebels and Rwanda.
The peace meetings brought mixed feelings in Goma where some residents expressed hope it could help end the fighting while others dismissed it as inadequate.
“We expect nothing from this. The only solution is for the leaders to meet,” said Fiston Kitoko, a Goma resident.
Meanwhile, President Félix Tshisekedi’s party, the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), which is influential in Congo’s politics, has expressed opposition to the church leaders’ peace efforts, arguing that the churches should have waited for an official stance from the president. ____
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Ruth Alonga, The Associated Press
