1. Posted on Sunday 30 November 2008 - 09:15

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   Mforgham

   

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   Solomon Tembang Mforgham, AfricaNews reporter in Limbe, Cameroon Photo: Edith Tulp

   Congolese Tutsi rebel leader General Laurent Nkunda threatened war on Saturday unless Congo's government entered a new round of talks with him. Nkunda, whose forces have captured the North Kivu province in the east of DR Congo since launching a new offensive in August, has repeatedly demanded negotiations.

   

   Nkunda said he had been told by the U.N. special envoy, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, that Kinshasa had accepted the principle of talks. Reuters news agency said "If there is no negotiation, let us say then there is war," Nkunda told reporters after meeting Obasanjo in the rebel commander's native village, Jomba.
   
   "I know that (the government) has no capacity to fight, so they have only one choice: negotiations," he said. "We asked for a response as to where, when, and with whom we are going to do these talks. For us, we propose Nairobi and for the mediator we proposed chief Obasanjo."
   
   Video footage of the meeting provided by the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo, MONUC, showed Obasanjo criticising Nkunda for recent hostilities, including Thursday's capture of the town of Ishasha, on the border with Uganda.
   
   "What has happened in the last 14 days has not made me happy," Obasanjo said, rising to his feet to address Nkunda, who remained seated at a low table. "I tried to build a relationship of trust, but I don't receive the same from you."
   
   Obasanjo said Nkunda should have informed him he was planning fresh offensives.
   
   "You are making me a laughing stock," he said.
   
   Nkunda, who wore a white robe with matching shoes and scarf, wrung his hands said the ceasefire he had declared applied only to fighting against the Congolese army, not against what he described as "foreign negative forces".
   
   That ceasefire has brought nearly two weeks of relative calm. But his men have continued attacking Congolese and Rwandan militia allies of the government.

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Reactions

1. Posted on Sunday 30 November 2008 22:23

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   henry2015

   

   
   1 berichten
   Lid sinds November 2008

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   Obasanjo should be in work and the working experiences he gained as a head of state and president of a popular Nigeria should drive his determination to put the rebels to talk in order to save Congo from dying.
   
   Maybe, the rebels lack trust in his personality or he is not couragous enough to talk because it is not his nature, then the UN and the AU should review his cyrrent employment status.
   
   Negotiations is urgently imparative now!

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