Felix Tshisekedi and Paul Kagame at an unsuccessful summit of East African states

DRC President Felix Tshisekedi (left) and his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame (right), during the extraordinary summit of the East African Community (EAC), Saturday February 4, 2023. © Tchandrou Nitanga / AFP - Montage RFI

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They had not met since September 2022. Paul Kagame and Felix Tshisekedi were this Saturday, February 4 in Bujumbura and participated in the 20th extraordinary summit of heads of state of the Community of East African States (EAC ).

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With our correspondent in Kinshasa,

These meetings were devoted to the security situation in the eastern part of the DRC and the tensions between Kinshasa and Kigali.

Ugandan Yoweri Museveni, Tanzanian Samia Suluhu, Kenyan William Ruto also attended this meeting.

While it is true that the principle of an extraordinary summit had been acquired since November 2022, bringing together the leaders of the region, including Felix Tshisekedi and Paul Kagame, was not certain given the persistent tension between the two neighbors.

However, this will undoubtedly be the only great merit of this summit given the poor results.

The discussions lasted more than three hours, behind closed doors at the Ntare Rushatsi presidential palace.

Officially, they took place in a peaceful atmosphere.

However, several sources say that the discussions were not so simple.

Kinshasa was waiting at least for the confirmation of a more offensive mandate for the regional force deployed in North Kivu, Kagame insists that this force also and above all attacks the FDLR and other militias.

No consensus was reached on this.

Call for de-escalation

Instead, the region's heads of state once again called for de-escalation.

They also ordered an immediate ceasefire.

The six asked the military officials of the EAC countries to meet in a week.

This meeting, they said, will have to work on new operational deadlines.

It will also be a question of reassessing the deployment plan of the regional force.

The Heads of State also asked other countries in the region to reinforce this force, which for the time being is only made up of Kenyans and Burundians deployed in the eastern part of the DRC.

The Heads of State also underlined the importance of a dialogue process which should accompany the purely military aspects.

The six heads of state present were not very united at the end of the summit.

The Tanzanian Suluhu Samia and the Ugandan Yoweri Museveni were the first to leave the room and go directly to the airport.

The other four left several minutes later and no family photo was taken at the end of the assizes.

The next meeting is a priori to be scheduled before February 20.

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