African Union to DRC rebels: Comply with summit decisions

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – The African Union Sunday, November 25, called on the M23 rebels in DR Congo to comply with the call by a regional leaders’ summit to stop fighting, and welcomed a commitment by the Kinshasa government to resolve the rebels’ grievances.

AU chief Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma “welcomes the commitment of the Government of the DRC to listen, evaluate and resolve any legitimate grievances of the M23. She urges the M23 immediately to take the steps expected of it, ” an AU statement said.

“The summit… outlined a 10-point plan that provides for the immediate withdrawal of the M23 elements from all the locations they recently occupied, as well as the establishment of security arrangements to monitor the situation on the ground,” the statement said.

Leaders at the summit in the Ugandan capital on Saturday said that the rebels should withdraw to positions at least 20 km (12 miles) north of Goma, the eastern DRC town they seized on Tuesday.

In exchange the Kinshasa government committed to “listen to, evaluate and resolve any legitimate grievances” M23 has.

Later Saturday the political leader of the M23 rebel group, Jean-Marie Runiga Lugerero, said he had an initial meeting with DR Congo President Joseph Kabila after the summit in Kampala.

Dlamini Zuma reiterated the “AU’s deep concern at the worsening humanitarian situation on the ground and the abuses committed against the civilian populations,” the AU statement said. – Agence France-Presse