HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — South African leaders decided Wednesday to extend for another year the presence of regional troops deployed to fight rebels in conflict-torn eastern Congo, also pledging to work to peace in Mozambique, where disputed elections caused unrest.
Leaders gathered in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare for an extraordinary summit under the umbrella of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), a bloc of 16 countries that includes the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Regional power South Africa has deployed almost 3,000 troops to the SADC mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which deployed last December. Just over 2,000 others come from Tanzania and Malawi.
The mission is part of a large number of forces operating in the mineral-rich region that has been plagued by decades of armed violence. They include Congolese government soldiers, foreign mercenaries, a United Nations peacekeeping force and more than a hundred groups competing for power, land and valuable mineral resources. Others try to defend their communities. Some armed groups have been accused of mass killings and ethnic cleansing.
Neighboring Rwanda has rejected the charges, including those from the Congolese government UN experts, that’s it supports M23, the main rebel group active in eastern Congo, which is now one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with more than seven million displaced.
The UN peacekeepers were scheduled to leave Congo next month, but increasing violence in the east by Rwandan-backed rebels has forced them to stay. The country’s Minister of Communications, Patrick Muyaya, has stated that there would be a new timeline for the departure of the force. he did not provide details.
On Mozambique, SADC leaders, without providing details, expressed their “unwavering commitment” to pushing for a peaceful resolution to an election dispute that resulted in weeks of protests that left at least 30 people dead.
Mozambique’s electoral office has declared the ruling Frelimo party and its presidential candidate the winners of the October 9 general election. Frelimo has governed Mozambique since its independence from Portugal in 1975.
Venancio Mondlane, the independent candidate who came second with 20% of the national vote, has challenged the result in court and called for nationwide protests.
The country’s highest court has yet to rule on the opposition’s challenge. The Public Prosecution Service this week filed a case against Mondlane and the Optimistic People for the Development of Mozambique, or Podemos, the party that supports him and is demanding compensation for damage to state property during the unrest.
Outgoing Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi has said he is willing to meet presidential candidates to defuse political tensions. Mondlane has gone into exile to an undisclosed location and claims to have a plot to kill him.
