Obasanjo starts DRC talks
2008-11-15 09:26
Kiwanja - Aid workers in the eastern DRC began feeding tens of thousands of hungry refugees in rebel-held areas on Friday, as a UN-appointed envoy started urgent talks aimed at averting a wider war.
Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, named by UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as his special envoy for eastern
Congo, met Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos in Luanda
and then flew on to the Congolese capital Kinshasa.
Obasanjo, tasked with seeking a lasting solution to the
conflict in Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu province,
was to hold talks with Congolese President Joseph Kabila.
Obasanjo said he wanted to meet rebel leader Laurent Nkunda.
"Yesterday, by telephone, I spoke to my brother Nkunda ...
everything will be done to meet with him face to face," he told
Reuters at Luanda airport before leaving for Kinshasa. He said
details were still being worked out.
Humanitarian catastrophe
Fighting between Nkunda's Tutsi rebels and the Congolese
army has forced some 250 000 people from their homes in North
Kivu since late August, resulting in what the UN has called a
humanitarian catastrophe and fears of a broader war.
For the first time after weeks of fighting, UN aid workers on
on Friday handed out rations of maize and lentils to the first
of at least 50 000 hungry civilians in Rutshuru territory, the
scene of weeks of battles between rebel and government forces.
Under a hot sun, men, women and children lined up quietly in
a church compound and a football stadium after the UN World
Food Programme (WFP) convoy crossed the front lines.
Envoy hopeful
Obasanjo said he was hopeful his mission could achieve
peace. "I'm confident, but it will not be easy," he said.
There are fears fighting could escalate into a repeat of a
1998-2003 war that sucked in six African states and led to
millions of deaths.
Kabila accuses neighbouring Rwanda of supporting Nkunda,
while southern African states led by Angola have said they are
considering sending troops to back the Congolese army, or to
bolster a stretched 17 000-strong UN force in the DRC.
Obasanjo said he had received assurances from Angola that no
Angolan troops were fighting with Congolese government forces,
contrary to repeated rumours.
"I want to end the speculation that Angolan troops are
fighting side by side with Congolese troops ... that is not the
case," the former Nigerian president said.
- Reuters