The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)'s non-commitment to the East African Community (EAC) treaty was evident on Wednesday evening, January 29, when President William Ruto of Kenya chaired a virtual Extra-Ordinary Summit to deliberate on the situation in Goma.

The DRC joined the EAC in 2022 but slacked in the bloc's commitments over time.

Rwanda's President Paul Kagame, Evariste Ndayishimiye (Burundi), Uganda's Yoweri Museveni and Tanzania's Samia Suluhu attended the Wednesday virtual summit.

Kagame took issue with DRC's President Felix Tshisekedi's absence in the meeting, saying his non-commitment toward the cause of peace in the DRC was jeopardising the process.

He wondered what end the summit sought to achieve yet the country whose matters they were discussing was not represented.

“Even if all of us were doing everything right, nothing is going to come out of it, until those mainly concerned are also part of it, participating and contributing to the success of the process through which they are getting the support," he said.

Kagame seemed to blame Tshisekedi for stalling the process of solving the crisis in his country.

He accused the DRC president of blackmailing the EAC which he observed had made progress in solving the matter.

Kagame faulted Tshisekedi for turning to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) for a solution and abandoning the EAC which had already deployed the efforts to settle the puzzle in his country.

"But when do we match what we are saying and what we are doing so that we get to what we want? When do we come to that? I haven't seen it...By the way, even now the person or the country we are talking about is not represented as we are discussing. And it is supposed to be, the country is supposed to be part of East Africa, but it is nowhere to be represented.

"So I'm not sure what bearing, what we are discussing has on what happens in the process of finding a solution in this country. I'll move on. The conflict that was created from the time we had the East African community get involved in trying to help in Congo, and later on when the East African force was trying its best and we were seeing progress, Tshisekedi decided they are not doing what he wanted and went to SADC," he said.

Whilst Tshisekedi snubbed the EAC virtual summit, his handlers confirmed he would grace the SADC Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Kagame and Tshisekedi have been in conflict, accusing each other of bankrolling the M23 rebels.

The Rwandan president recently went after South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa who had claimed that the M23 rebels were being backed by the forces from Kigali.

The rebel group captured the strategic city of Goma, triggering mass protests and a jailbreak freeing over 4,000 prisoners.

Thirteen South African soldiers were killed.

Over 7 million people have been displaced, with reports of massacres, sexual violence, and child soldier recruitment worsening the dire situation.

The EAC withdrew its troops recommending dialogue between the parties.

Source: TUKO.co.ke