KINSHASA: Another failed ceasefire, a UN call for talks nobody seems to want, and a new influx of foreign soldiers: despite a flurry of diplomatic efforts there appears little chance a fresh insurgency in eastern DR Congo will stop any time soon.
International envoys as well as the Democratic Republic of Congo government say they want to give a chance to peace efforts for ending the insurgency by M23 rebels in North Kivu province.
Kinshasa and several Western governments say the rebels are backed by a Rwanda eyeing the natural resources across the border, a claim angrily denied by Kigali.
Relations between the two neighbours have long been tense. The M23, associated with the Tutsi ethnic group, says it is fighting in part to protect Tutsis from rival Hutu extremist groups.
M23 also claims the DR Congo government has reneged on a pledge to incorporate the fighters into the national army.
UN ambassadors for France and Gabon, ending a three-day visit to the area, on Sunday stressed a political solution to end the fighting, which according to UN figures has displaced over 800,000 people.
But the DR Congo government wants the international community to impose sanctions against Rwanda and rules out negotiations with the M23.
"Let's be serious! The M23 is a terrorist movement," Foreign Minister Christophe Lutundula said late on Monday.
Mamy Asumini Kayumba, a resident of Goma, a city of more than one million people increasingly threatened by the advance of M23 fighters, said talking was no solution.
The M23 had previously captured Goma in 2012 before being driven out by a joint Congolese-UN offensive.
"For 30 years we've been living with these atrocities, it's time for it to end," Kayumba said.
For Placide Nzilamba, a civil society activist in Goma, the UN Security Council "should instead go tell the Rwandan government to withdraw its soldiers, who are killing Congolese and shelling cities." — AFP
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