Guterres warns Africa summit of regional war over DR Congo

ADDIS ABABA: UN chief Antonio Guterres on Saturday demanded the Democratic Republic of Congo’s “territorial integrity” be respected and a regional war avoided, at an African summit the day after Rwandan-backed fighters seized a second DRC provincial capital.

With international pressure mounting on Rwanda to curb the fighting in eastern DR Congo (DRC), the conflict was set to dominate the African Union summit, which opened in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Saturday morning.

Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame was seen attending meetings at the gathering, but Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi was absent from the summit as fighters from the M23 group took more territory.

Having routed the Congolese army to capture the key provincial capital of Goma in North Kivu last month, the Rwandan-backed armed group has since pushed into neighbouring South Kivu.

It took a key airport there before marching largely unchecked into the city of Bukavu on Friday, security and humanitarian sources said. “The fighting that is raging in South Kivu -- as a result of the continuation of the M23 offensive -- threatens to push the entire region over the precipice,” Guterres told leaders in an address to the summit, without mentioning Rwanda. He urged dialogue, saying that a regional escalation must be avoided “at all costs” and that there was “no military solution”. “And the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the DRC must be respected,” he said. The AU has been criticised for its timid approach in the face of a possible regional conflagration, and observers have demanded more decisive action.

The European Union said on Saturday it was “urgently” considering all options following the news from Bukavu.

“The ongoing violation of the DRC’s territorial integrity will not go unanswered,” it warned. However, Guterres stressed in a later press conference that Africa was “the key to the solution of the problem”.