DR Congo's sovereignty ‘must be respected'
LONDON: UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said DR Congo's 'sovereignty and territorial integrity must be respected' in a statement Sunday, after the M23 armed group advanced on several fronts in the DRC's volatile east.
'There must be a ceasefire now ... And the DRC's sovereignty and territorial integrity must be respected,' Lammy said in a video on X, calling for a 'peace process lead by African countries.'
The M23 movement, supported by some 4,000 Rwandan soldiers, according to UN experts, now controls large swaths of eastern Congo, a troubled region rich in natural resources.
'We're calling on all sides to allow assistance to get to those who need it most,' said Lammy, adding that he had spoken to Rwandan President Paul Kagame and his Congolese counterpart Felix Tshisekedi.
'The UK will support those committed to ending this conflict. And we will take action against those who continue to fuel it,' he added.
London summoned Rwanda's envoy to the UK on Tuesday to condemn the M23 advances, calling for Rwanda to 'immediately withdraw' all Rwanda Defense Forces from Congolese territory.
Fighters took control of the South Kivu provincial capital Bukavu last Sunday, weeks after capturing Goma, the capital of North Kivu and main city in the country's east.
The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution on Friday which 'strongly condemns' the M23 offensive 'with the support of the Rwanda Defense Forces.'
According to the UN, the latest fighting has led to an exodus of more than 50,000 Congolese to Burundi, Uganda and other countries.
Lammy announced the UK had 'allocated more aid to help those suffering' in the DRC, without providing further details.
Tshisekedi said on Saturday he is going to launch a unity government, telling a meeting of the Sacred Union of the Nation ruling coalition not to be distracted by internal quarrels.
'I lost the battle and not the war. I must reach out to everyone including the opposition. There will be a government of national unity,' said Tshisekedi. He didn't give more details on what that would entail or when it would happen.
Rwanda has accused Congo of enlisting ethnic Hutu fighters responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda of minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
M23 says it's fighting to protect Tutsis and Congolese of Rwandan origin from discrimination and wants to transform Congo from a failed state to a modern one. Analysts have called those pretexts for Rwanda's involvement.
On Saturday, Tshisekedi paid tribute to soldiers who were killed and vowed to prop up the army.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arab News
an hour ago
- Arab News
Israel FM says Golan to ‘remain part of' Israel in any Syria peace deal
JERUSALEM: Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Monday that the occupied Golan Heights 'will remain part of' Israel under any potential peace agreement with Syria. 'In any peace agreement, the Golan will remain part of the State of Israel,' Saar told a news conference in Jerusalem, referring to the territory Israel seized from Syria in 1967 and later annexed in a move not recognized by the United Nations.
Saudi Gazette
2 hours ago
- Saudi Gazette
'Mariupol is diseased': Residents deny Russia's stories about occupied city
MARIUPOL — "What they're showing on Russian TV are fairy tales for fools. Most of Mariupol still lies in ruins," says John, a Ukrainian living in Russian-occupied Mariupol. We've changed his name as he fears reprisal from Russian authorities. "They are repairing the facades of the buildings on the main streets, where they bring cameras to shoot. But around the corner, there is rubble and emptiness. Many people still live in half-destroyed apartments with their walls barely standing," he says. It's been just over three years since Mariupol was taken by Russian forces after a brutal siege and indiscriminate bombardment – a key moment in the early months of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Thousands were killed, and the UN estimated 90% of residential buildings were damaged or destroyed. In recent months, videos and reels from several pro-Russia influencers have been painting a picture of a glossy city where damaged structures have been repaired and where life has gone back to normal. But the BBC has spoken to more than half a dozen people — some still living in Mariupol, others who escaped after spending time under occupation — to piece together a real picture of what life is like in the city. "There are a lot of lies floating around," says 66-year-old Olha Onyshko who escaped from Mariupol late last year and now lives in Ukraine's Ternopil. "We had a beautiful city but now it's diseased. I wouldn't say they [Russian authorities] have repaired a lot of things. There's a central square – only the buildings there have been reconstructed. And there are also empty spaces where buildings stood. They cleared the debris, but they didn't even separate out the dead bodies, they were just loaded on to trucks with the rubble and carried out of the city," she adds. Mariupol is also facing severe water shortages. "Water flows for a day or two, then it doesn't come for three days. We keep buckets and cans of water at home. The colour of the water is so yellow that even after boiling it, it's scary to drink it," says James, another Mariupol resident whose name has been changed. Some have even said the water looks like "coca cola". Serhii Orlov, who calls himself Mariupol's deputy mayor in exile, says the Siverskyi Donets–Donbas Canal which supplied water to the city was damaged during the fighting. "Only one reservoir was left supplying water to Mariupol. For the current population, that would've lasted for about a year and a half. Since occupation has lasted longer than that, it means there is no drinking water at all. The water people are using doesn't even meet the minimum drinking water standard," says Serhii. There are frequent power cuts, food is expensive, and medicines are scarce, residents tell us. "Basic medicines are not available. Diabetics struggle to get insulin on time, and it is crazy expensive," says James. The BBC has reached out to Mariupol's Russian administration for a response to the allegations about shortages and whether they had found an alternative source for water. We have not got a response so far. Despite the hardships the most difficult part of living in the city, residents say, is watching what Ukrainian children are being taught at school. Andrii Kozhushyna studied at a university in Mariupol for a year after it was occupied. Now he's escaped to Dnipro. "They are teaching children false information and propaganda. For example, school textbooks state that Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Odesa, Crimea and even Dnipropetrovsk regions are all already part of Russia," says Andrii. He also described special lessons called "Conversations about Important Things" in which students are taught about how Russia liberated the Russian-speaking population of these regions from Nazis in 2022. "Teachers who refuse to take these lessons are intimidated or fired. It's like they are reprogramming the minds of our children," says John, a Mariupol resident. During World War Two Victory Day celebrations in May, images from Mariupol's central square showed children and adults dressed up in military costumes participating in parades and performances – Soviet-era traditions that Ukraine had increasingly shunned are now being imposed in occupied territories. Mariupol was bathed in the colours of the Russian flag – red, blue and white. But some Ukrainians are waging a secret resistance against Russia, and in the dead of the night, they spray paint Ukrainian blue and yellow colours on walls, and also paste leaflets with messages like "Liberate Mariupol" and "Mariupol is Ukraine". James and John are both members of resistance groups, as was Andrii when he lived in the city. "The messages are meant as moral support for our people, to let them know that the resistance is alive," says James. Their main objective is collecting intelligence for the Ukrainian military. "I document information about Russian military movements. I analyse where they are transporting weapons, how many soldiers are entering and leaving the city, and what equipment is being repaired in our industrial areas. I take photos secretly, and keep them hidden until I can transmit them to Ukrainian intelligence through secure channels," says James. Occasionally, the resistance groups also try to sabotage civil or military operations. On at least two occasions, the railway line into Mariupol was disrupted because the signalling box was set on fire by activists. It's risky work. Andrii said he was forced to leave when he realised that he had been exposed. "Perhaps a neighbour snitched on me. But once when I was at a store buying bread, I saw a soldier showing my photo to the cashier asking if they knew who the person was," he said. He left immediately, slipping past Mariupol's checkposts and then travelling through numerous cities in Russia, and through Belarus, before entering Ukraine from the north. For those still in the city, each day is a challenge. "Every day you delete your messages because your phone can be checked at checkpoints. You're afraid to call your friends in Ukraine in case your phone is being tapped," says James. "A person from a neighbouring house was arrested right off the street because someone reported that he was allegedly passing information to the Ukrainian military. Your life is like a movie – a constant tension, fear, distrust," he adds. As talks continue between Ukraine and Russia, there have been suggestions from within and outside Ukraine that it would need to concede land in exchange for a peace deal. "Giving away territory for a 'deal with Russia' will be a betrayal. Dozens risk their lives every day to pass information to Ukraine, not so that some diplomat in a suit will sign a paper that will 'hand us over'," says John. "We don't want 'peace at any cost'. We want liberation." — BBC
Arab News
3 hours ago
- Arab News
UN conference seeks boost for aid as US cuts bite
SEVILLE: A UN conference aiming to rally fresh support for development aid began in Spain on Monday with the sector in crisis as US-led funding cuts jeopardize the fight against poverty. At least 50 world leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron, Kenya's William Ruto, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen and UN head Antonio Guterres are gathering in the city of Seville for the June 30-July 3 meeting. Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, Ecuador's Daniel Noboa, Angolan leader Joao Lourenco and Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan also joined more than 4,000 delegates from businesses, civil society and financial institutions. But the United States is snubbing the biggest such talks in a decade, underlining the erosion of international cooperation on combating hunger, disease and climate change. A blistering heatwave that is scorching southern Europe welcomed the delegates to the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, an example of the extreme weather that scientists say human-driven climate change is fueling. UN sustainable development goals set for 2030 are slipping from reach just as the world's wealthiest countries are withdrawing funding for development programs. US President Donald Trump's gutting of his country's development agency USAID is the standout example, but Germany, Britain and France are also making cuts as they boost spending in areas such as defense. International charity Oxfam says the cuts to development aid are the largest since 1960 and the United Nations puts the growing gap in annual development finance at $4 trillion. More than 800 million people live on less than $3 a day, according to the World Bank, with rising extreme poverty affecting sub-Saharan Africa in particular. Disruption to global trade from Trump's tariffs and ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine have dealt further blows to the diplomatic cohesion necessary for concentrating efforts on helping countries escape poverty. Among the key topics up for discussion is reforming international finance to help poorer countries shrug off a growing debt burden that inhibits their capacity to achieve progress in health and education. The total external debt of the group of least developed countries has more than tripled in 15 years, according to UN data. Critics have singled out US-based bulwarks of the post-World War II international financial system, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, for reform to improve their representation of the Global South. Painstaking talks in New York in June produced a common declaration to be adopted in Seville that only went ahead after the United States walked out. The document reaffirms commitment to the UN development goals such as eliminating poverty and hunger, promoting gender equality, reforming tax systems and international financial institutions. The text also calls on development banks to triple their lending capacity, urges lenders to ensure predictable finance for essential social spending and for more cooperation against tax evasion. Coalitions of countries will seek to spearhead initiatives in addition to the so-called 'Seville Commitment,' which is not legally binding. But campaigners have criticized the text for lacking ambition and have rung alarm bells about rising global inequality. 'Global development is desperately failing because... the interests of a very wealthy few are put over those of everyone else,' said Amitabh Behar, executive director of Oxfam International. Hundreds of demonstrators braved the sizzling heat in Seville on Sunday to demand change in international tax, debt and aid policies. 'Global south countries will never be able to decide how they want to do development if they are bound to the new colonial debt,' protester Ilan Henzler, 28, told AFP. 'We are here to fight for the abolition of this illegitimate debt.'
