DRC, rebel talks stall

2008-12-11 11:08

Nairobi - Talks between Congolese rebels and Kinshasa government officials stalled on Wednesday on their third day in Nairobi, UN special envoy Olusegun Obasanjo said.

"Success has been blocked by two difficulties," the former Nigerian president, who is chairing the discussions, told reporters.

One hurdle is that the rebels want to discuss the situation in the whole of Democratic Republic of Congo, not just the east, he said. The other is the lack of decision-making authority on the part of the rebel delegation.

Obasanjo said he asked the rebels to allow members of his mediation team to go to Goma, the rebel-ringed main city in the east of Congo, on Thursday to see rebel leader Laurent Nkunda and discuss the stumbling blocks with him.

Hopes of an agreement

Talks have been underway in the Kenya capital amid hopes of reaching agreement on a framework for substantive talks, a UN spokesperson said, with a view to halting the conflict in the east of Congo.

"Delegations are expected to be in a mix of proximity and direct talks today. There is a hope on behalf of the facilitation that a framework agreement will be reached today," UN spokesperson Jens Laerke said earlier.

Obasanjo, who is UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's special envoy to the Democratic Republic of Congo, had said on Tuesday that he hoped substantive talks would begin "before Christmas".

Kinshasa's Co-operation Minister Raymond Tshibanda is leading the government delegation, while the five-man rebel team is headed by Serge Kambasu Ngeve, deputy executive secretary of the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP).

Fighting since August 28 between government troops and the CNDP, led by renegade general Laurent Nkunda, has displaced more than 250 000 people in eastern Nord-Kivu province.

Heavy losses

Nkunda's fighters have inflicted heavy losses on the Congolese army, taking control of much of the province, including the outskirts of the regional capital Goma.

The CNDP has repeatedly broken a self-declared cease-fire in place since late October, by clashing with other armed groups in the region.

Kinshasa said before the Nairobi meeting that it would welcome other armed Congolese groups to participate in negotiations, but the CNDP has demanded exclusive direct talks with the government.

The fighting resumed in August after the breakdown of a January peace agreement signed by all the Congolese armed groups.

- AFP