On Monday, the Eastern Region agreed to form a regional force in an effort to thwart the escalating DR Congo crisis. The regional force will be constituted as an East African Community force under the EAC Protocol on Peace and Security and the EAC Treaty Article 124 on regional peace and security and Article 125 on cooperation.
The meeting was convened by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta at the East African Community (EAC) summit in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame joined leaders of Burundi, Kenya, South Sudan, and Uganda as well as Tanzania’s ambassador to Kenya to discuss the peace and security situation in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the greater East African region. Also in attendance were the Chiefs of Defence Forces of all the seven countries of the EAC Partner States.
According to the press release, the meeting defined the problem, highlighted the threat analysis, Concept of Operations (CONOPs), Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), Rules of Engagement (ROE), and other legal and technical regulations to facilitate the operationalization of the Regional Force and its various operational arms.
Furthermore, the Heads of State condemned offensive language, hate speech, threats of genocide, and other politically inciting language by all parties, and encouraged the people of the DRC to work together in order to stabilize the eastern DRC for it to prosper.
This is not the first time that DRC has received regional support to qual the rise of militia groups. In 1998, the South African Development Community (SADC) countries- Angola, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe provided military support to Laurent Kabila in response to the invasion of the Congo by Rwanda and Uganda working with a Congolese rebel group.
