Good morning. Over the weekend, the presidents of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda – Félix Tshisekedi and Paul Kagame – were among those who took part in a regional summit aimed at ending the resurgent violence in eastern DRC. The summit ended with a call for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire. But while there was a lull in the fighting yesterday, many fear that a ceasefire is less likely than escalation to a wider regional war.
Rwanda does not officially admit to its involvement in the latest episode of the long-running and devastating conflict in eastern DRC. But M23, an armed group with Rwanda’s tacit and practical support, has taken the capital of North Kivu province, Goma, and is now moving south to expand the territory under its control. At stake is control of a mineral-rich region of crucial strategic significance, and the fate of civilians there who are frequently the subject of ethnically targeted attacks – but also the question of whether national borders can act as any sort of constraint.
