|
The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on the Great Lakes Region of Africa called today for urgent international intervention to contain the crisis in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, reinforce UN troops struggling to respond, and address the underlying causes of the conflict.
APPG chair Eric Joyce MP said: “This crisis is a grave threat to the progress that has been made in years of efforts to end the deadliest conflict of modern times, and could greatly damage the credibility of the UN and of the international community. We need urgent action to support MONUC in its immediate task – and then to finally make progress with ending the underlying conflict in eastern Congo.”
The APPG calls on the UK and wider international community to urgently respond to the request of the head of MONUC for more resources and troop reinforcements, and has asked Secretary of State David Milliband and Africa Minister Mark Malloch-Brown to make sure the UK plays its part in the international reaction to the crisis. The APPG believes serious consideration should be given to an additional EU force to support MONUC in north and south Kivu, along the lines of that deployed to Ituri province in 2003. But the response should be part of a wider effort:
“We should not return to the status quo. This crisis should be the occasion to redefine the international commitment to the Congo so that there can be a more effective effort to address the causes of the conflict. If we leave the fundamental problems to fester under the surface, all our other efforts – and the UK’s laudable investment in helping the Congo – will be built on sand. Peace requires dealing with the CNDP, but also all the other armed groups – in particular the FDLR. The Congolese government must play their part make this happen.”
“Other regional governments, in particular Rwanda, have a clear duty to do everything in their power to actively support that process.”
The APPG unequivocally condemns the offensive of General Laurent Nkunda, and calls on him to withdraw his troops and make permanent yesterday’s ceasefire. The Amani peace process which his CNDP movement was engaged until late August was designed to include legitimate issues of concern for the Tutsi community Nkunda claims to be defending, and the APPG was active in calling for all parties to genuinely engage with that process. But by resorting to aggressive military action the CNDP have put themselves unequivocally in the wrong.
The APPG Chair added: “In terms of the impact on civilians this is a much worse conflict than Darfur or Afghanistan – one that has cost 5.4 million lives directly and indirectly over the past decade. But there are far fewer barriers to effective international action, and the problems in Congo are not intractable. After ten years, we need a more determined approach to prevent the conflict in eastern DRC dragging on – at huge cost to the civilian population and to any prospect of recovery in the country.”
|
APPG Delegation Visit DRC Report
Oral Parliamentary Questions and Debates July 2011
The OECD Guidelines and the DRC cases
JOHANNESBURG 03 February 2012 (IRIN) - The belief that the end is nigh for Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) - a small but ruthless transnational armed group operating in four African states - underestimates its resilience and overestimates the unity and capability of the forces ranged against it, say analysts. 
NAIROBI/KINSHASA 02 February 2012 (IRIN) - The lives of thousands of HIV-positive people in the Democratic Republic of Congo are at risk as the country faces declining donor funding and a severe shortage of HIV treatment, according to Médecins Sans Frontières. 
BUJUMBURA 27 January 2012 (IRIN) - There are fears of a looming food shortage in Burundi after heavy rains damaged two successive harvests, say officials. 
NAIROBI 28 December 2011 (IRIN) - Launched in 2004, IRIN’s film unit has won numerous awards for its productions, several of which have been aired by prominent international broadcasters. Here is a list of the unit’s most-watched films in 2011. 
KAMPALA 02 December 2011 (IRIN) - Brandishing a plea for developed countries to make good their promises to reduce carbon emissions, 300 farmers, youths and activists took the scenic route to the COP17 conference in Durban, travelling more than 7,000km from Burundi in 17 days, through 10 eastern and southern African countries, aboard a convoy of buses draped in various national flags. 
POINTE NOIRE 25 January 2012 (IRIN) - Forced child labour remains rampant in Central Africa, where poverty fuels the trafficking of children from poorer countries to oil-rich states such as Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and the Republic of Congo, according to experts. 
LONDON 26 January 2012 (IRIN) - Breast cancer continues to be misunderstood, under-diagnosed and fatal, particularly in developing countries, say researchers, despite more than one million official annual diagnoses and almost half a million recorded deaths annually. 
KIGALI 09 January 2012 (IRIN) - This will be a busy year for Rwanda's health centres as the country attempts to reach its goal of medically circumcising 50 percent of men by June 2013 as part of HIV prevention efforts. 
JUBA/KAMPALA 30 January 2012 (IRIN) - Petty traders from Uganda, South Sudan's largest trading partner, crowd into Konyo Konyo market in Juba selling used clothes, vegetables and household wares. Lacking economic prospects at home, they come in the hope of finding better opportunities in Juba's booming post-war economy. 
BUNDIMASOLI 26 January 2012 (IRIN) - The marginalized western Ugandan Basua community is fighting extinction; forcibly removed from their forest home two decades ago, they have struggled to cope with modern life and have been ravaged by health crises, including HIV. 
ISIOLO, 3 February 2012 (IRIN) - Politically motivated violence in the northern Kenyan town of Moyale, which has left dozens dead and tens of thousands displaced in recent weeks, shows little sign of abating and there are fears that the clashes could continue until elections are held for new local government positions. 
LAGOS, 3 February 2012 (IRIN) - A month after an angry public launched protests across Nigeria over skyrocketing fuel prices due to the removal of a government subsidy, a measure of calm has returned and people seem to have settled into accepting a compromise. 
HARARE, 3 February 2012 (IRIN) - With global funding for HIV/AIDS on the decline, Zimbabwe's innovative AIDS levy - a 3 percent tax on income - has become a promising source of funding for the country, with a dramatic increase in revenue collected in the past two years. 
