United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday called for an immediate cessation of hostilities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and urged support for efforts to find a political solution to the crisis in eastern DRC.
"The secretary-general is deeply concerned by the ongoing violence in the eastern DRC, and in particular, by the fighting which began two days ago between a mixed group of Coalition of Patriots in the Congolese Resistance/Mayi-Mayi militia and the National Congress in Defense of the People (CNDP) in the Rutshuru area," Ban's spokeswoman, Michele Montas, said in a statement.
The UN chief urged the armed groups involved in the ongoing fighting to avoid activities that result in the further displacement and suffering of the civilian population, Montas said.
Ban was heading for Nairobi, Kenya, for a regional summit on finding a comprehensive and lasting solution to the DRC crisis.
Both DRC President Joseph Kabila and Rwandan President Paul Kagame will attend the UN-backed emergency summit of the African Union.
Ban's presence at the Nairobi summit has been his latest effort in addressing the worsening violence in the DRC.
At a press encounter on Wednesday, Ban said he had been on the phone daily, many times daily, with world leaders working to resolve the DRC conflict.
Humanitarian agencies have described as "desperate" the situation of people displaced amid renewed fighting in North Kivu in eastern DRC.
The number of people forced to flee their homes, at 250,000, represented one fifth of the population of North Kivu. Many were women and children.
The new fighting has overshadowed a fragile ceasefire between the government and the CNDP, a rebel group led by Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda.
The CNDP demands direct talks with the government, while the Kabila administration insists on dialogue with all rebel and militia groups, instead of opening talks alone with the CNDP.
Kinshasa has also stressed the need to normalize ties with neighboring countries, especially Rwanda.
The DRC has accused Rwanda's Tutsi-led government of backing the CNDP in its latest advance on Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu. Rwanda denies the charges, blaming Kinshasa for failing to disarm the Hutu rebel group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), in skirmishes with minority Tutsis in the east part of the DRC.
The FDLR consists of elements involved in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, who escaped to the DRC's eastern provinces afterward, triggering tensions between Kinshasa and Kigali.
Source:Xinhua
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