Kenyan president William Ruto will act as the high-level African guarantor of the next phase of the peace deal to be signed in Washington between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo next week APA learnt on Monday.
US President Donald Trump who has been working behind the scenes to host a meeting for economic cooperation and peace in the East and Central African region invited Mr Ruto and his two African counterparts Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Felix Tshisekedi of the DR Congo.
Congolese officials appear to be receptive to the designation of Mr Ruto as guarantor.
An agreement brokered by the United States and Qatar brought a truce between the Congolese military and fighters of the M23 movement in the east of the DRC which still remains volatile despite the ceasefire.
Thousands have been killed and over seven million people havebeen displaced die to the unrest in eastern DRC.
Kinshasa had always harboured suspicion that the Kagame regime was backing the M23 militia, an allegation Kigali denies.
Days before the signing Kagame has renewed accusations that Tshisekedi’s DRC was deliberately undermining the peace process by ”setting up roadblocks” to render the next phase impossible to realise.
DRC on the other hand clamed that M23 has not been respecting the terms of the truce and continues to consolidate its presence in North Kivu.
The deal between the two neighbours covers eight implementation accords, which include monitoring the ceasefire and the exchange of prisoners exchange. Other parts of the deal consist of a schedule on humanitarian aid access and the return of refugees.
However, the sticking point concerns when and how to disarm the M23 and the presence of some 12,000 Rwandan troops in eastern DRC in exchange for Kigali’s demand for the Hutu-dominated Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda, blamed for the 1994 genocide.
WN/as/APA