South Africa will help the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to find a diplomatic solution to the ongoing fighting in the country, South African Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said on Wednesday.
He was speaking only a day after the forces of warlord Laurent Nkunda apparently attacked and killed three men who wanted to return to the regular army.
Congolese Minister of Defence Adolphe Onusumba told Lekota in the capital of DRC, Kinshasa, that the solution to the conflict in the east is not a military one. Diplomatic efforts are needed, he said.
”We would be able to assist to create a situation for that to happen,” Lekota said in an address to hundreds of South African troops who are in the DRC as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force.
He told the troops that South Africa will stay in the country in the Great Lakes Region, possibly even after the UN has left.
”More and more demands are being made of our country to help ensure that democratic institutions are set up,” he said.
Nkunda commands thousands of fighters who have repeatedly attacked Congolese Defence Force positions, as well as the 17 500-strong UN peacekeeping force.
He was a former Congolese army general who quit, claiming the country’s minorities were being sidelined.
The latest incident on Tuesday came after the inauguration last week of Joseph Kabila as president following the DRC’s first democratic election in decades.
Lekota was not clear on what initiatives will be taken to negotiate with Nkunda. — Sapa