A month has passed since the DRC army and M23 rebels agreed to a truce, and regional soldiers from the East African Community (EAC) have been celebrating.
Kenyan regional military commander Gen. Jeff Nyagah told reporters in Goma, in the country’s east, that the cease-fire had considerably facilitated the M23’s withdrawal from areas they controlled.
According to rebel spokesman Willy Ngoma, regional authorities assigned regions for the rebel faction M23 during the peace negotiations.
However, there are serious concerns regarding the country’s eastern areas’ capacity to maintain peace.
Despite President Félix Tshisekedi’s repeated denials of direct discussions with M23, the latter claims that it will not disarm until the government does.
M23 has been reorganizing and retaking territory in the North Kivu area for ten years after disarming under a peace deal.
Hundreds of thousands of residents who fled their homes remain in camps until their safety can be guaranteed.
The M23, largely made up of deserters from the Congolese military services, took up arms for the first time in 2009, saying that the government was discriminating against the country’s ethnic Tutsi minority and was not keeping its peace agreements
